Because most of what I do during each waking moment has something to do with the motto, “Inquiring minds want to know,” a few days ago I heard about what was probably just a basic misunderstanding of a perfectly laudable and correct action taken last month by the Economic Development Corporation of Clark County. Briefly, here are the facts:
• In early 2009, the economic recession and the falling housing market led to the lay-off of more than 150 employees of Danfoss Scroll Technologies in Gum Springs.
• As of February 2010, Danfoss had brought back all those laid-off employees who wanted to return to work.
• On April 8, the board members of the Economic Development Corporation of Clark County approved an economic incentive grant of $93,750 to Danfoss to create 75 brand-new jobs.
• But someone—I have no idea who—suggested that the incentive money was used to bring back the laid-off workers rather than to create 75 new jobs.
“Not so,” said Shawnee Carrier, executive director of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance, which shares a spiffy suite of offices with the Arkadelphia-area Chamber of Commerce at 2401 Pine Street. “The incentive grant was used exclusively to assist Danfoss in generating 75 new jobs and not to encourage the laid-off workers to return to Scroll. In fact, she added, “We don’t provide incentives for lay-offs that are called back because we’re hoping the industries will do well enough to call those jobs back themselves.”
These incentives, by the way, which are absolutely vital to industrial growth, were created by the half-cent sales tax that Clark County voters passed in 2007 and that will extend thorough 2014. It’s interesting how the “new jobs” incentives are determined. The lowest incentive is $1,250 per job,—100 percent to 110 percent of the average county wage, which in Clark County is between $11 and $12 an hour. Danfoss Scroll met that requirement.
Have these incentives proved to be a good thing? You bet your industrial-development future they are!
“Eighty percent of our job growth comes from existing industries,” Shawnie said. “So this tax enables us to provide incentives to existing industries. It may be job creation as we’re doing with Danfoss Scroll or a new water filtration system for Petit Jean Poultry so the plant manager doesn't have to lay his workers off for two days because because they are having issues with the water filtration system. Now that we have the tax, these are the types of things we are able to do not only to attract new industries but also to help our existing industries.”
At a time when there are plant closings all over America, she added, “we haven’t seen that here.” Instead, she cited a number of expansions, such as helping Alumacraft when the tax was first passed, assisting Scroll in creating new jobs, Print Mania expanding its work force by 10, K & P Cabinet Doors in Amity increasing its payroll and adding 10 to 12 new jobs.” There’s also Drumco, she added, which opened in November 2009 and announced it had added 95 new jobs in February, and continues to do well. “It all shows that we’re helping.”
Shawnie also pointed out that incentives of more than $84,000 were used to provide workforce training for Georgia-Pacific. Those people now have the skills to work not only at GP but at other places. And it shows Koch Industries, which owns GP, that the local community and economic development organization is behind them and wants to see them succeed.
“Just recently,” she said, “we heard that Fordyce had closed its GP facility. We were lucky that Gurdon was not one of those facilities. I would like to think that at least part of the reason that we still have GP is that we cared enough to provide them with incentive money.”
What message does Shawnie want to send to the people of Clark County?
“I want them to know that the incentive tax is working for their benefit. The tax does work but this is a marathon, not a sprint. By that I mean it's going to take time for us to build the groundwork to get everything in place in order for us to do well. To do this, we’ve got to have land in place and an infrastructure in place. We’ve got to have the right pieces of the puzzle in place at the right time. All of these pieces must work together, which is why the Clark County Strategic Plan was so important because it gave us an overall plan and now we have the blueprint for economic development, which is our localized plan for economic development in Clark County.”
What can other organizations in Clark County do to help? “Find out exactly what it is that we are doing,” she said. “Get the facts, and help us spread the word that this is a very viable organization, that we are trying to help make Arkadelphia and Clark County an even better place to call home.”
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Because most of what I do during each waking moment has something to do with the motto, “Inquiring minds want to know,” a few days ago I heard about what was probably just a basic misunderstanding of a perfectly laudable and correct action taken last month by the Economic Development Corporation of Clark County. Briefly, here are the facts:
• In early 2009, the economic recession and the falling housing market led to the lay-off of more than 150 employees of Danfoss Scroll Technologies in Gum Springs.
• As of February 2010, Danfoss had brought back all those laid-off employees who wanted to return to work.
• On April 8, the board members of the Economic Development Corporation of Clark County approved an economic incentive grant of $93,750 to Danfoss to create 75 brand-new jobs.
• But someone—I have no idea who—suggested that the incentive money was used to bring back the laid-off workers rather than to create 75 new jobs.
“Not so,” said Shawnee Carrier, executive director of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance, which shares a spiffy suite of offices with the Arkadelphia-area Chamber of Commerce at 2401 Pine Street. “The incentive grant was used exclusively to assist Danfoss in generating 75 new jobs and not to encourage the laid-off workers to return to Scroll. In fact, she added, “We don’t provide incentives for lay-offs that are called back because we’re hoping the industries will do well enough to call those jobs back themselves.”
These incentives, by the way, which are absolutely vital to industrial growth, were created by the half-cent sales tax that Clark County voters passed in 2007 and that will extend thorough 2014. It’s interesting how the “new jobs” incentives are determined. The lowest incentive is $1,250 per job,—100 percent to 110 percent of the average county wage, which in Clark County is between $11 and $12 an hour. Danfoss Scroll met that requirement.
Have these incentives proved to be a good thing? You bet your industrial-development future they are!
“Eighty percent of our job growth comes from existing industries,” Shawnie said. “So this tax enables us to provide incentives to existing industries. It may be job creation as we’re doing with Danfoss Scroll or a new water filtration system for Petit Jean Poultry so the plant manager doesn't have to lay his workers off for two days because because they are having issues with the water filtration system. Now that we have the tax, these are the types of things we are able to do not only to attract new industries but also to help our existing industries.”
At a time when there are plant closings all over America, she added, “we haven’t seen that here.” Instead, she cited a number of expansions, such as helping Alumacraft when the tax was first passed, assisting Scroll in creating new jobs, Print Mania expanding its work force by 10, K & P Cabinet Doors in Amity increasing its payroll and adding 10 to 12 new jobs.” There’s also Drumco, she added, which opened in November 2009 and announced it had added 95 new jobs in February, and continues to do well. “It all shows that we’re helping.”
Shawnie also pointed out that incentives of more than $84,000 were used to provide workforce training for Georgia-Pacific. Those people now have the skills to work not only at GP but at other places. And it shows Koch Industries, which owns GP, that the local community and economic development organization is behind them and wants to see them succeed.
“Just recently,” she said, “we heard that Fordyce had closed its GP facility. We were lucky that Gurdon was not one of those facilities. I would like to think that at least part of the reason that we still have GP is that we cared enough to provide them with incentive money.”
What message does Shawnie want to send to the people of Clark County?
“I want them to know that the incentive tax is working for their benefit. The tax does work but this is a marathon, not a sprint. By that I mean it's going to take time for us to build the groundwork to get everything in place in order for us to do well. To do this, we’ve got to have land in place and an infrastructure in place. We’ve got to have the right pieces of the puzzle in place at the right time. All of these pieces must work together, which is why the Clark County Strategic Plan was so important because it gave us an overall plan and now we have the blueprint for economic development, which is our localized plan for economic development in Clark County.”
What can other organizations in Clark County do to help? “Find out exactly what it is that we are doing,” she said. “Get the facts, and help us spread the word that this is a very viable organization, that we are trying to help make Arkadelphia and Clark County an even better place to call home.”
