The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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November 23, 2009

Pittsburg City Commission to consider joining regional initiative

By Andra Bryan Stefanoni

news@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — The expression “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” often is used when explaining a theory of psychology.

City leaders from Joplin, Mo., and Pittsburg believe that adage also is true when it comes to economic development, to the extent that they are implementing a five-year regional economic growth initiative called the Joplin Regional Prosperity Initiative.

Pittsburg likely will be the most recent city to join the initiative. At tonight’s City Commission meeting, economic development director Mark Turnbull will ask for official approval and an eventual investment of $20,000, representing $1 per city resident.

“The old adage that economic development is done in house with a small group of people in one city is probably not as effective as it once was,” Turnbull said.

To that end, the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, the Joplin Business and Industrial Development Corp., the Southwest Missouri Development Alliance, and the Joseph Newman Business and Technology Innovation Center have formed the regional initiative with the guidance of Dennis Fuhrhop, a consultant from National Community Development Services based in Atlanta, Ga.

The initiative is endorsed by the Southwest Missouri Workforce Investment Board and the Joplin Industrial Development Authority. It would bring together not just Pittsburg and Joplin, but numerous communities on both sides of the border and in Oklahoma.

Cities joining the initiative will be asked at some point during the next five years to invest $1 per resident in exchange for the benefits they will receive — benefits that Rob O’Brian, president of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, called “deliverables” that are quantifiable.

Turnbull said numerous educational and business entities use the regional approach. For example, EaglePicher and Able Manufacturing and Assembly are based in Joplin, but they have operations in Pittsburg, while Pittsburg-based businesses such as Names and Numbers and Miller’s Professional Imaging serve numerous regions across the nation.

“Part of our own interest in pursuing this is we are very much a region anyway,” O’Brian said. “People live where they like to live, and work where they can find a job.”

According to Turnbull, 74 of those employed by Superior Industries before it closed nearly a year ago were residents of Carthage, Mo.

“From our side, we see economic development as regional: The strength of a region means increased capabilities because you’re part of a larger unit,” Turnbull said.

During the past two weeks, Turnbull, O’Brian and Fuhrhop have provided Pittsburg city commissioners with a detailed executive summary citing goals and strategies, to which the commissioners have reacted favorably.

“The question is: Will we lose our identity?” Turnbull said. “We will still operate as we always have. We will work independently with the Kansas Department of Commerce and won’t share leads if they come to us directly.”

O’Brian said that by becoming a member of the initiative, Pittsburg also would be included in a regional approach to marketing for new and expanding businesses.

“Really what we’ve seen over time is that businesses are on a pretty fast track,” he said. “They do information seeking on the Web to start with, then once they find an area, they want to have one point of contact, not contacts from 20 different area communities.”

And rather than look at one community, they look at the work force from which they could find employees, access to other related industries, and access to transportation routes and shipping, he said.

Fuhrhop, who works on similar initiatives across the U.S., said: “Businesses don’t look at boundaries. They look at opportunities.”

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