(Spencer)– An economic development group is implementing a new program designed to retain and expand existing businesses and industries in the region.
Kathy Evert, President of the Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation, says the Existing Industry Call program will be conducted during the first quarter of 2007 throughout the organization’s four-county service area of Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet counties.
Evert says 16 volunteers have been recruited to conduct face-to-face interviews with company officials. She says they hope to have the first group of about 35 companies interviewed by the end of March.
Evert says the goal is to identify any barriers that may exist that are keeping existing companies from staying and/or growing here. She says the information will be documented in a report, and that any sensitive information will be kept confidential.
Evert says the program will be repeated every year so that within two years most if not all major employers in the region will have been interviewed.
