Looking for direction from community leaders and citizens, Bob Schroeter — Clallam Economic Development Corporation’s new executive director — sought out and got an earful of ideas at the EDC’s town hall-style meeting in Sequim on July 26.
The event, sandwiched between a July 20 event in Forks and another in Port Angeles on July 27, was designed to help EDC staff understand what locals view as economic development opportunities in the county and what role EDC should take.
“You know Sequim better than I do,” Schroeter told a group of nearly 40 of business owners, citizens and government leaders at the Sequim Transit Center last week.
Schroeter, picked to lead the EDC in April, said his organization is hoping to complement what other entities are doing to promote businesses and not duplicate or overrun others.
“It’s not another ‘silo,’ that ‘The EDC does it better than anyone else.’ That’s the last thing we need,” Schroeter said. “We need better coordination. I hate having two people do the same task.”
Hence the town hall, which he used to explore resources Sequim could offer not only prospective businesses but also nonprofits and a workforce to the Olympic Peninsula.
Meeting attendees explored possible opportunities of promoting key resources in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley — agri-business, the outdoors, recreation, and relative low cost of living — to the community’s advantage when recruiting entrepreneurs, professionals and younger workers to the area.
Patricia McCauley, president of InsideOut Solutions, said she’d like to see a kind of “Come on home” kind of campaign to bring back peninsula high school graduates to work here.
“They need to go (off the peninsula), go out into the rat race and see we have it pretty good (here),” she said.
Clallam County commissioner Mark Ozias added he’d like to see more discussion between community leaders and youths at middle school and high school ages on what kind of jobs they’d like.
“The question,” Schroeter said, “should be, ‘What would Sequim need to look like for you to want to raise your family here?’
“So often we say ‘They …’ and ‘they’ is us. We need to be more inclusive.”
An aging workforce will be tough to replace not only in Sequim but across the nation, Sequim city councilor Ted Miller said.
“It’s not just a Sequim problem; it’s a U.S. problem. It’s a real problem the EDC is going to have to face,” he said.
Schroeter encouraged meeting attendees to consider the concept of being flexible in vocations, both individually and as a community. An example, he said was how Peninsula College — thanks in part to a grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce — started a certified marine trades program to fill a community need for marine welders.
“We need to be ready to pivot when the economy changes,” Schroeter said.
Schroeter said Peninsula College doing a great job training registered nurses and certified nursing assistants, but Sequim now needs an influx of doctors to fill a gap in local healthcare jobs.
“We all have to be recruiting doctors,” McCaulay said.
The Strait Shot — Clallam Transit’s new bus service from the peninsula to Seattle — should be promoted more, said Sequim city councilor Genaveve Starr. The idea garnered support at the meeting, particularly in the light of cost-prohibitive issues surrounding an expansion of William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles.
Attendees also encouraged ideas of more partnerships with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Sequim, of promoting the advantageous cost-of-living and recreational opportunities the peninsula provides to Seattle-area residents, and supporting local entities that provide to entrepreneurs low-interest loans.
Schroeter said that an inclusive attitude toward prospective business owners and residents to the area is key.
“If we elbow people out when they come in,” he said, “they’re not going to come back. They’re not going to invest here.”
Schroeter said he will compile notes from Sequim, Port Angeles and Forks town hall events, add comments from EDC staff and present results to entities such as the Sequim City Council for consideration.
The EDC also is seeking volunteers to help with Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) visits from nonprofit and for-profit entities alike, as well as helping develop an inventory of vacant/available commercial properties in Sequim, a county infrastructure map and a database of Clallam nonprofits.
“This is the first time I don’t have a negative impression of the EDC,” said Miller, the Sequim city councilor. “For once, I’m optimistic.”
The three-person staff at EDC is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization assisting local businesses since 1985. Call 457-7793 or see www.clallam.org for more information.
