Elyse Cochran: I’ll tell you what’s being done

“Dalton at 12.1 percent unemployment. And 50 miles north of here lots of jobs and growth. It is an election year. Have any of the candidates done anything to attract jobs to this area, this stricken, jobless area? Vote out career politicians and vote in local businessmen with a good, honest background and career in good, old fashioned hard work.”

That comment in the Feb. 6 edition of Today’s Forum led me to write this column concerning the current unemployment rate and Whitfield County’s elected officials’ role in creating jobs.

First, the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) unemployment rate is 12.1 (December 2011). This number includes both Whitfield and Murray counties. The Whitfield County (unincorporated) for the same period was 11.8, while the city of Dalton was 12.4. Whatever number reported does not reflect those who have stopped looking for jobs, so our numbers may be much higher that reported. One can haggle all day on “numbers,” but we all can probably agree on one point, the unemployment rate for our community has been staggering over the past three years. What this really means is that many of our citizens are without jobs. Jobs, or the lack thereof, is the real issue.

What are our local elected officials doing about this? The answer is “a lot.” Whether the source of a job is through manufacturing, tourism, retail or service, economic development is the creation of jobs in a community. Plain and simple. If you were to ask any county commissioner or any mayor or council member, being part of job creation would likely be a primary reason for their public service. How many of us are willing to put our names in the voter’s box, especially on a local level? Not many.

So what exactly is being done?

First, the community is very concerned about keeping the jobs that are here. Assistance in many forms is offered by the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce, Dalton Downtown Development Authority, Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Dalton-Whitfield County Joint Development Authority (JDA) to name a few. The state of Georgia has representatives assigned to our area to assist in job creation. Congressman Tom Graves and his staff are readily available to assist and he is known as our “economic development” congressman. The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners — all of them — are engaged in our efforts to keep and retain jobs. Our county commissioners and mayors (Dalton, Varnell and Tunnel Hill) personally meet with developers, prospective businesses and investors to try to get them interested in their areas.

Dalton Utilities has a full-time economic developer who works with the JDA. North Georgia EMC allocates staff to support economic development in both Whitfield and Murray counties. Georgia Power brings industrial prospects across our region, as does the Georgia Department of Economic Development. Local commercial/industrial realtors contribute as they often times work with companies to occupy buildings they have listed.

How have your local elected officials responded to replace the lost manufacturing jobs? Pre-2005, Dalton-Whitfield County was not even in the game of new industry recruitment. So step one was getting into the game. By the way, this game is not local or Northwest Georgia-driven; this very difficult game is played nationally and internationally.

Local elected officials, particularly the city of Dalton and Whitfield County governments, formed the Joint Development Authority (JDA) in 2006.

The JDA’s job is to market our empty buildings and properties (commercial, industrial, office and retail) globally resulting in jobs and a growth in tax base. Shortly after, in 2009, the local carpet and floorcovering industry, along with numerous of their suppliers, banks, insurance agencies, attorneys and individuals pooled together their private funds to create a program known as Grow Greater Dalton, a program providing private financial resources to get Whitfield into the global marketing game.

In 2009, the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners put the county on the economic development map by bringing the International Vinyl Corp. (IVC) here in late 2009. The initial investment by IVC was to be $70 million and this goal was exceeded. 110 jobs were to be created by Dec. 31, 2011, and the actual number was 155. Earlier this month, IVC announced the creation of 30 more jobs by expanding to a third production shift.

So why are Cleveland and Chattanooga so successful? One reason is they have been in the economic development game recruitment (aggressive recruitment) for more than 30 years, compared to Dalton-Whitfield for six years. The other factor, beyond anyone’s local control, is what each state brings to the game. Local elected officials have no control on what incentives states bring to each and every deal! Another factor is preparation. Do you know how long Chattanooga worked on the Volkswagen site? More than a decade. Some say success is when luck meets preparation. Hamilton County, Chattanooga and the state of Tennessee formed a partnership. This unity-driven philosophy resulted in success with the VW plant, Wacker Chemical and other new plants locating in the Chattanooga region, just north of our state border.

Preparation and product development are critical in the success of manufacturing job creation. Prior to 2010, Whitfield County had no publicly controlled site. The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners stepped up to the plate, again, resulting in the acquisition of the property now known today as the Carbondale Business Park. This was no rush decision on the part of the commissioners. The JDA expended funds in 2007 to evaluate sites across the county and the results yielded recommendations that were given to the commissioners. Prior to this acquisition, other industrial sites were considered but were not always competitively priced. Dalton and Whitfield were losing prospective companies left and right. We are living in a day where giving away land is considered a “normal practice” by some communities.

All those empty buildings

Some say, “Why do we need an industrial park when we have so many existing, empty buildings?” While we have many empty buildings, many of them were built as warehouses for carpet. Many buildings take up their entire site and have little to no employee parking. Some have low ceiling heights, 14-20 feet ceiling heights, while many of today’s manufacturing operation require 28-35 feet ceiling heights. For communities to really be in the economic development game they must have available sites and buildings. And there are always times when no existing building works and companies want to build a building to suit their needs.

The commissioners also supported job creation when they increased Freeport Exemption Tax from 20 percent to 100 percent. Dalton/Whitfield was (is) one of the last communities in the state to tax manufacturing inventory. This exemption will enhance our potential to put businesses in many empty buildings, especially those at Connector 3.

It is not cheap for any community to get into the “global” game of economic development. Additionally, we realize that “time” is not on our side, with one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. In Dalton-Whitfield’s case, it will take time to reverse a trend and reputation for “not wanting” new industry, a trend that lasted for decades. It takes time to see results. It takes a lot of money to see results. More importantly, it takes city and county governments working together, along with private investors and private developers.

Progress is being made. 2011 brought the anchor tenant for the new Carbondale Business Park, XL Brands, a happening that often takes five to 10 years. 2011 brought Kohl’s, a new level of retail to enhance the quality of life and attract even more, diverse retail in the future.

Dalton competed hard with Calhoun to get the Engineered Floors project. Many local private investors purchased land before the recession that will expand our product inventory for future retailers. For decades, Dalton Utilities has invested in countywide infrastructure to provide Tunnel Hill and Varnell with necessary tools to attract and expand their business base and supply extensive utility capacity for Dalton. From 2009-2011, 795 new manufacturing jobs have been created or retained in Dalton/Whitfield County resulting in $192 million in new investment.

While the local (Dalton and Whitfield) elected officials cannot control what happens in Murray County or the counties over the Tennessee border, rest assured that your local elected officials have done much to support job creation. For the rest of us, it takes hard work, patience and perseverance.

Those unemployed are encouraged to use this time to enhance their work skills. The jobs of the future will not use the skills of the past. Resources are available at the Georgia Department of Labor, Dalton State College and Georgia Northwestern Technical College, to name a few, that help individuals to be prepared for emerging job opportunities.

Obviously, we, the JDA have failed to communicate what is going on to attract new jobs and we will try to change that going forward.

Stay tuned for future columns as we share efforts in expanding economic opportunities in Dalton/Whitfield.

Elyse Cochran is executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield County Joint Development Authority.

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