To grow or not to grow ... that is the question

I have been thinking a lot lately about services and businesses in the Town of Saratoga. I’ve also been talking to friends and co-workers about whether or not the town is growing or dying.

My wife and I moved here a few years ago following her job and were very pleased with our good fortune. We bought a house and have since had a child. I won’t speak for my wife, but I would like to see our town grow and become more vibrant. It will give my little girl a better place to grow up and hopefully make my home an investment rather than a money pit.

To see how Saratoga compares to other places in Wyoming I did some research this week and my assessment is this. There has been a long-term lack of planning and incentivizing towards growth. We have a relatively new town council, and they have initiated the creation of a master plan for the town which will give direction for growing our community. In the meantime, I feel we have been dragging our feet on available opportunities and may lose more important businesses while waiting for the master plan.

I’m going to keep my discussion limited to business retention and attraction.

Just this Monday we had yet another local business come in to advertise that they are closing. Several other Saratoga businesses have closed shop in my few years in the Valley. A Rawlins-based daycare has been trying to open a location in Saratoga for almost year. They too cannot find a suitable space.

A drive around town should make it evident to anyone that we have ample vacant buildings, retail spaces and open lots which could house new businesses and office locations. Other municipalities in Wyoming seem to capitalize on this type of situation, create a welcoming climate for businesses and seek out available funding sources to incentivize business development.

The town of Saratoga is aware of those funding sources and has used grants to expand the hot pool, build the Platte Valley Community Center and its business incubator space and to fund the upcoming master plan. What many other towns and cities across Wyoming have done is go to that same well and rehabilitate buildings for specific business needs, build new buildings to bring in business, fund infrastructures improvements like water, sewer and gas lines and improve streets, sidewalks and facades in downtown areas.

Child Care

The first example I will use is two towns that have expanded daycare facilities. I have a vested interest in this since I returned to work and the lack of available childcare has slapped me in the face. I can tell you from experience that having a screaming 10-month-old in the office is like having two full-time jobs, and it’s not easy on the rest of the Saratoga Sun staff either. Trying to conduct a phone interview when my little girl is throwing a fit because she is teething is hard.

What does this have to do with growth of the town? Well, it’s been nearly a year since Tomorrow’s Promise, an established daycare facility in Rawlins announced that they were coming to Saratoga. In the meantime Tomorrow’s Promise has not been able to find a suitable building or vacant lot in town.

A representative from Tomorrow’s Promise said they have been trying to develop discussions with the town to find a suitable existing building or a lot they can build on. The space needs approval from the Wyoming Department of Family Services, must meet State Fire Marshal’s specifications and state level health and safety requirements. So far, Tomorrow’s Promise has not found a building that meets all three criteria. They have expressed the willingness and ability to build a new building or bring modular units to a suitable site.

Both Baggs (population 440) and Sundance (population 1,182) have successfully expanded daycare in their communities. According to Wyoming Business Council data the expansion of the child care facilities has created two new jobs in Baggs and Sundance retained four jobs, creating five new ones. This figure does not include the number of parents who were able to return to work sans-child. A feasibility study for Little Rascals Preschool and Daycare Center in Baggs indicates that the demand for child care will include three to four infants and a total of 60-64 children in 2016. Carbon County and Baggs own and maintain the facility and Little Rascals leases the space.

My question is, if Baggs can provide this service, why can’t we?

This kind of social service can only make the town more appealing to young families looking to relocate or stay in town.

Economic

Development 101

The Wyoming Economic Development Association (WEDA) trains municipal officials in how to enhance business development and retention.

Stacy Crimmins, Chief Executive Officer of the Saratoga/Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce cited WEDA’s four-tier economic development strategy in a recent interview. Crimmins said she thinks Saratoga is doing well with the lower tiers of economic development strategy, but we do not try to recruit new businesses. “We don’t actively seek and recruit businesses. Number one we don’t have budget and time for it … It is not as effective as helping (existing) business recruit and grow.”

According to WEDA there is one main goal for economic development: “The goal of economic development is to increase the tax base and provide better jobs, thus enhancing the well-being and prosperity of the citizens of Wyoming.

In order to reach this goal, the time and resources allocated to economic development programs typically fall under five categories: developing supportive public policy, creating a competitive product (community infrastructure, sites, buildings, business climate, workforce development, and leadership development), the retention and expansion of existing businesses, entrepreneurship support, and recruiting new business.”

WEDA also contends that public policy, even at the municipal level is crucial to economic development: “Underlying any successful economic development program is public policy. The decisions made by government to invest in education, transportation, natural resources, health care, and social programs all impact a jurisdiction’s ability to attract or retain companies, which leads to new jobs and investment.”

What has Saratoga done well for economic development?

There is a business incubator at the Platte Valley Community Center which has helped to foster some local business development and has excellent computers and ample space. The town has designated a business park area. There is a master plan for improving the airport. A master plan for the town is currently being developed.

What have some other towns around the state done that we haven’t?

Towns that have business parks are building spaces for businesses to move into.

In 2012 Powell received a nearly $718,000 Business Ready Community (BRC) grant to build a facility for the expansion of Gluten Free Oats (GFO). The town put a match of about $80,000 toward the grant. GFO proposed that the expansion would create 11 new jobs in Powell. The city owns the building and the revenues from the lease to GFO created a revolving loan that can be used for community projects, infrastructure and projects identified by community interest groups.

Rock Springs procured a $518,000 grant to install utilities, improve a road and add curbs, gutters, sidewalks, landscaping and lighting to an industrial lot. This was enough incentive for Wyoming Machinery to build a $10 million building on the site, creating 40 new jobs at a median wage of $41.22 per hour as of 2013. The city owns the infrastructure improvements and is benefiting from the sales tax generated by Wyoming Machinery and utilities fees.

Laramie built a 10,020 square-foot office space in the Laramie River Business Park for Tri-Hydro Corporation, a Laramie born and grown environmental and engineering consulting firm, to expand their business. This allowed Tri-Hydro to create 41 new jobs at a median wage of $26.44 per hour. The project was completed in 2009 and by 2012 Laramie had recaptured almost $176,000 of the $357,000 they invested in the building. The revenues have been put into an interest bearing account that Laramie can draw from to fund other economic development projects.

I’ll stop beating this horse and refer you to the Wyoming Business Council’s website if you want to look at their expansive list of development projects around the state (http://www.wyomingbusiness.org/program/project-profiles-brc-cdbg-cfp-/8965).

Main Street

There are nine municipalities in Wyoming that have become certified members of the Wyoming Main Street Program. Rawlins is one of them.

The Main Street program is a nationwide group of communities that have a consistent, 30-year-old economic development strategy for their downtown business areas. In Wyoming these communities have invested municipal funds and procured grants to rehabilitate buildings to business specific purposes, built infrastructure and created events to promote local business. Statewide in 2013 the Main Street program claims to have fostered the gain of 35 new businesses, creating 138 new jobs with a total reinvestment in the communities of over $10 million.

During 2013 in Rawlins the DDA/Main Street program helped gain six new businesses for the city with 14.5 new jobs created. The program invested $123,000 into the downtown business area with return on the investment, in the form of sales taxes, private contributions and volunteer hours, of $333,159. This is a return on their investment of $2.71 for every dollar spent.

According to Crimmins Sartoga considered the Main Street idea around 2004. After an ad hoc committee discussed it with community representatives it was determined that the community center was a better place for those efforts at the time.

Grant funding is not the only avenue to promote economic growth. In upcoming columns I hope to explore other issues such as the low cost of holding on to vacant land in Saratoga and Carbon County.

Where do we stand?

Is Saratoga dying? Census data from 2000 and 2010 show that Saratoga lost 2.1 percent of its population while Carbon County grew 1.6 percent. After exploring how other towns have used the grant avenue to promote retention and business growth I am left with one question for the citizens and officials of Saratoga.

The question is this Saratoga: Do we want growth … or not?

 

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