City manager gathers group to eye economic development

Looking to the future of Fort Scott, City Manager Dave Martin said he's gathered a group of people from across the city to figure out what form economic development should take.

In early December, the city parted ways with Fort Scott Director of Economic Development Dale Bunn. He had been in the job for four years and was involved in several projects including the Good Neighbor Blitz, Phoenix Committee, and most recently, the community rehabilitation project.

Martin recently told city commissioners he gathered a group of eight to 10 people from the sectors of education, Bourbon County Economic Development Council, health care, chamber of commerce, business and banking to determine how to move forward.

Martin told commissioners the consensus of the group is to take things slowly. He said he's looking at a target time of June to fill the position. "We don't want to move too quick," he said.

"Basically what I'm doing is trying to evaluate and make sure that as we move forward on the economic development (position) that it's the right thing" and that economic development is being handled correctly, Martin said.

Since the economic development director reports to Martin, he wants to make sure he knows all the job entails.

"I'm going to seminars and learning about job recruitment, so I can properly have an idea of how to move economic development forward," Martin said. "Communities handle economic development in so many different ways. ... They may have a planner, a director, or they may outsource. There really is no right way to handle it. What I want is to make sure we have all the people at the table to say here's how we handle economic development."

He wants to ensure the path taken is the right thing to recruit jobs to Fort Scott.

"The city has to take a lead role in making that happen. I need to understand it and have my hands around the pie, then I can be better at directing how we move forward," Martin said.

Fort Scott Community College President Clayton Tatro said the group met for the first time Dec. 21.

Participants appreciated the opportunity to come together as a community and plan to take a deliberate approach to devising a job description and characteristics they would like to see in the next economic development director.

There have been several economic development committees formed in Fort Scott, but this will offer a more coordinated effort, Tatro said. "The opportunity we have in front of us is to have a much more coordinated effort going forward with economic development," among not only public entities, but the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce and BEDCO, he said.

Martin said whoever fills the economic development director position "needs to be plugged in to a lot of different entities.

"We have to go after the business. We cannot sit in Fort Scott, Kan., and think business is going to come to us. We have to go after it. There's so much competition out there. You have to sell the wonderful things we have here in Fort Scott. That person has to go out there and sell, put the right people around the table and close the deal," Martin said.

He added he is encouraged that some businesses are looking forward to a better year next year in 2011 and that there are some small companies considering coming to town. He said a Stage clothing store is expected to open at the South Main Shopping Center in February of March 2011. From talking to people at the stores that have opened there, Martin said he was told sales have been good.

He also did a walk-through of downtown businesses recently and "they seem optimistic as well."

"I'm excited about next year. I think next year will be really optimistic for Fort Scott. I think things are on the way back up. It's not going to be fast. It took us a while to get here, but I think we're turning the corner," Martin said. He added that Fort Scott has a great workforce.

"There's a lot of teamwork and people taking are of each other. ... You just don't find that in other cities," Martin said.