WEEKLY UPDATE      February 9th, 2007

TRUSTEES HEAR JANUARY ACTIVITY REPORT ...do you like statistics? If so, yesterday's PCDA Board of Trustees meeting would have been right up your alley. Trustees heard that in January, PCDA staff had contact with 46 new companies, had 45 contacts with existing companies, 18 with consultants, (mostly during the Hotel ZaZa reception hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce,) 21 with our regional partners and 13 with them, (the government). PCDA also has 16 active projects and one active lead with a job potential of 1,003 new jobs. In addition, Trustees received the annual audit for 2005-06, which was described as a "clean, unqualified" opinion, which is accountant speak for everything's fine. IT'S THE WORKFORCE, STUPID ...one of the challenges of trying to "close the deal" on some of the expansion and attraction projects, (it's about a fifty/fifty split of expansions and attractions….expansions have a much higher percentage for success and job creation than attraction) is the workforce shortage we've been living with for the last year or so. Companies do want to know where their workforce is going to come from and they don't want to hear that people follow jobs because that's not necessarily true anymore. PCDA staff spent time with PTC staff, (Pioneer Technology Center) this week working through workforce issues including the METS program which trains people for lucrative manufacturing jobs, meeting with the instructors of PTC programs to align economic development with the education pipeline, meeting with PTC staff and two real live employers on programs that can help them add and enhance the jobs they have. We also talked with several statewide large employers at a gathering at NOC yesterday to discuss their needs and what they see as issues in the future. "WE KNOW WE BELONG TO THE LAND" ...too bad the song said nothing about existing buildings 'cause 85% of all leads want an existing building. PCDA staff spent some of the week updating our available building and land inventory and has been "populating" the new PCDA GIS marketing website which will go from a "beta" site, (oh boy, more jargon) to live probably in March. This inventory includes Tonkawa now as PCDA and Tonkawa strengthen that partnership. There are not that many available buildings in Ponca City, however, and many of those that are available are available for a good reason, (price, quality, age, etc.). MORE STUFF AT PCDA ...one new proposal went out this week to a company that says they're only interested in Central and Southern Oklahoma. We deal with this a lot due to the desire of many companies to be near the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Many of these companies want to be near DFW for distribution reasons. This company, however, is not exclusively in distribution, pays good wages and would be a good fit for the Airport Industrial Park. UPCOMING.... Tue. Feb. 13th: Ponca City Election for Mayor. Please vote Tue. Feb. 13th: State Chamber Legislative day at the Capitol. Visit http://okstatechamber.com. Fri. Feb. 16th: OK Gateway Regional Partnership, 10:30 a.m., Blackwell Ponca City Development Authority 102 S. Fifth Street, Ste. 3, Ponca City, OK 74601 580.765.7070/580.765.0969-fax Or E-Mail - David Myers CEcD - Executive Director Visit Ponca City Development's Latest News Archives © www.goponca.com - Ponca City Development Authority - Ponca City, Oklahoma