Second of a two-part series
Alliance seeks to guide local growth

By Diane Chiddister

Members of a newly-formed alliance that seeks to oversee Village efforts toward economic development see their goals as attracting new businesses to Yellow Springs, including Air Force-related firms, and retaining existing businesses.

“It’s important for the village to think about what it wants to look like and how it wants to grow,” said Glenn Watts, secretary of Community Resources, and a member of the alliance. “We have to become more active, more aggressive.”

In October, Dan Young, CEO of Young’s Jersey Dairy and president of Community Resources, proposed to Village Council that Council give control of the Village’s $250,000 earmarked for economic development to a new group called the Yellow Springs Alliance, or YSA, a newly organized alliance of three local groups aimed at promoting business development — Community Resources, the Chamber of Commerce and the Community Information Project, or CIP — along with representatives of some other segments of the community, including arts organizations.

Council has not yet acted on Young’s request. In upcoming meetings, it will consider how specifically to implement its 2008 goal to “establish a plan that improves the economic condition of the community.”

The YSA effort has taken a different shape since the October presentation, according to Young in a recent interview. Rather than form a new group, the alliance will be composed of members of Community Resources, which will act as the lead organization, and the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce, he said. According to Jerry Sutton of the CIP, that organization has reached the end of its charge and will not participate.

The alliance believes it is the best entity to direct local economic development efforts because its members, unlike a municipal government, are focused on that goal only, according to Young.

“All of what we’ve done are economic development activities,” Young said. “We won’t get distracted because we have 100 other things to worry about.”

The alliance seeks to oversee the $250,000 earmarked for economic development, or $50,000 yearly for five years, which was included in last year’s property tax levy. The group would use the bulk of that money to hire someone to direct the economic development activities, who would answer to the alliance, according to Young.

“We feel a paid staff person who would focus on economic development would be the most efficient and effective way to go,” he said.

While the YSA would hold quarterly public meetings, the group would also meet in private and some decisions may be made in private, according to Young.

BRAC seen as opportunity
One potential source of new jobs mentioned by Community Resources leaders is BRAC, the Base Realignment Consolidation effort, in which many Air Force contractors will relocate from other parts of the country to the Wright Patterson Air Force Base within several years. The jobs provided by BRAC, which could include some medical research and software contractors, are the sort that villagers say they want in town, according to Watts.

“Ideally, you’re looking for high-pay, high-educational level businesses that are relatively benign for the environment and those jobs are hard to come by,” according to Watts, who said that BRAC would offer such business opportunities. “If BRAC comes to the area, I would like to see them come to Yellow Springs.”

The chance of the alliance connecting with BRAC opportunities has been enhanced by the recent appointment of villager Dave Boyer, a civilian Wright Patt employee who works with the general who is involved in the BRAC relocation effort, to the board of the Chamber of Commerce. Boyer, a local resident who joined the C of C in December and was appointed to its board in January, gave a talk to the C of C on BRAC possibilities in August.

BRAC is expected to bring about 1,200 Air Force and civilian workers to this area between 2007 and 2011, with most of the moves likely taking place at the end of that period, Boyer said in August.

According to Boyer in a recent interview, he was invited to join the Chamber of Commerce board and, after checking with an ethics group on the base, decided that he could do so as a villager, but not as a representative of the Air Force. He has a securities license, Boyer said, and is on the board as the owner of Boyer Financial Services.

While his Air Force job does not involve making decisions regarding which BRAC businesses would locate in Yellow Springs, he would be able to provide the alliance with information about which businesses are coming to the area, he said.

Many of the contractors who work on Air Force projects are software development workers who are “young and idealistic,” and might fit well in the village, according to Boyer, who said he sees the alliance’s efforts as “long overdue.”

“We need to be more focused on getting some dynamic, growth-based businessess and bringing them to Yellow Springs,” he said.

Community Resources efforts
Community Resources will be the lead organization of the alliance, according to Young. Formed in 1997 to promote local economic development, Community Resources has focused on the development of the Center for Business and Education, the commercial park on the western edge of town, which it developed at the request of the Village Council at the time. The CBE purchased the land from Vernay Laboratories with about $300,000 of the Village’s economic revolving loan fund monies and a grant of $100,000 from the Yellow Springs Community Foundation.

The group secured about $1 million in federal grants to develop the infrastructure, which is expected to be completed this summer, Young said. So far, the only resident of the CBE is the new Antioch University McGregor school, which opened in September. Community Resources was instrumental in keeping McGregor in Yellow Springs when McGregor President Barbara Gellman-Danley expressed her desire to move out of town several years ago.

“McGregor is here because of our efforts,” Young said.

Community Resources hopes that the CBE will provide between 300 and 500 new jobs in Yellow Springs, according to Young.

While Community Resources originally had 15 members, it now has only six, who are Young, Watts, Vice-President Carol Gasho, Lisa Abel of YSI Incorporated, Mark Crockett, and David Heckler. The group intends to increase its membership soon, said Young, who is also a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce, as is Crockett.

Community Resources is a private non-profit corporation, incorporated as the Yellow Springs and Miami Township Community Improvement Corporation, and has private meetings. Its membership is not open to the public, but is based on invitation from current members.

One reason the group has lost members is that villagers are reluctant to step up to responsible positions due to the criticism they will face, according to Watts.

“If you’re the person out in front you will take some heat,” he said. “A lot of people would just as soon not be drawn and quartered for their efforts. It’s a tough town.”

Community Resources member Lisa Abel of YSI, a new resident of Yellow Springs, stated that her interest in the effort has been heightened by reviewing figures showing the drop in income tax revenues for the Village between 2000 and now. During that time — a period that includes the relocation of Vernay Laboratories manufacturing to southern states — the Village has lost about 9 percent of its income tax revenues, or more than 20 percent if inflation is figured in, Abel said, a drop that shows a need to attract new businesses to Yellow Springs as soon as possible.

“We need to attract high value jobs to the area to bring that up,” she said.

C of C involvement
In an interview last week, Chamber of Commerce President Ellen Hoover stated that she supports inviting other representatives of the Yellow Springs community, especially those of arts groups, into the alliance’s decision-making process.

The Chamber’s current board of directors includes Hoover, Boyer, Young, Crockett, Jacki Mayer of WYSO, Elisabeth DeForest of YSI, Lynda Sirk of Antioch University, Elise Click of WesBanco, Sherryl Kostic of “would you could you” In a Frame, Terre Pope of Global Gallery and Benjamin Smith.

Hoover sees the new alliance’s charge as a balance between attracting new businesses and retaining existing ones, with the bulk of the effort going toward working with current businesses to keep them here.

“I think it’s critical that we learn who are the local businesses that no one has heard of,” she said in an interview last week. Regarding local businesses, “I think we have a lot of potential for helping them grow and mentoring them. I believe strongly in mentoring, in a formal mentoring system.”

As the former economic development administrator for the City of Springfield, Hoover managed an industrial park, started a business incubator and was involved in both recruiting new businesses and retaining existing ones, she said.

Hoover said she would also like to see the Village replenish its Revolving Economic Development Loan Fund, which is down to less than $10,000, and which has in the past funded new businesses. The fund in recent years had more than $300,000, with most of that going to the Community Resources effort to purchase land for the CBE. That no-interest loan will be paid back to the Village when new businesses begin moving into the park, according to Young.

While she agrees with a local-based economic development focus such as that supported by consultant Michael Shuman, as profiled in last week’s News, Hoover said she also believes the community needs to act quickly to restore local jobs, and that need to some extent means attracting businesses that are not currently in the area. Her experience as co-owner of the Millworks commercial park, which lost 52 jobs last year, has added to her sense of urgency, Hoover said.

Regarding what type of businesses she would like to see come to Yellow Springs, Hoover said, “I’d like to see the community define that. We need everyone talking to everybody. There are so many ways this community could get creative about doing this type of thinking.”

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com