WEEKLY UPDATE      September 14th, 2007

THE WHOLE NINE YARDS ...is what PCDA covered this week. We finished the legal mumbo on one agreement, completed round one with another and delivered a proposal to yet one more. We met with still another company, as well as a housing developer, both interested in coming here. In addition, we talked to a local company thinking expansion, we met with an out of state retailer and delivered information to another one. We presented to the Rotary Club about all of this stuff, completed board reports to the bosses representatives, (you’re the boss and the Trustees are your representatives) met with state folks on recruitment issues, scheduled the audit for later this month and wrote several run-on sentences for this newsletter. THE CHANGING FOCUS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ...it used to be called industrial recruitment back in the day but it changed around 1990 when growing the economy became about a lot more than just recruiting companies. Here’s an interesting tidbit: Last week, the labor department reported that the nation, as in the United States of America, cut 4,000 jobs. At the same time, the estimate of available jobs in the Ponca City area was about 1,400 open jobs. Put another way, there are enough open jobs in Ponca City for one third of all of the people laid off last week in the whole $#%&* country. Sounds simple enough. The challenge is that the open jobs here are not unskilled jobs. The alignment of the right skills and education with the right jobs is not easy. There is also the matter of having someplace they can live and someplace they want to live, (do not underestimate the importance of the latter). Finally, they have to know about us and have the resources to come here. Lots to do. TALK, TALK, TALK ...yesterday, PCDA Trustees met to make one key decision and to talk about some future ones. The major decision was to co-sponsor the new Mobile Skills Training Center, (see an upcoming Ponca City News for details). The talk was about several of the 18 active projects, the 19 contacts with new companies, the 41 meetings with existing Ponca City companies, the 14 with consultants, the nine visits with regional partners, and the 18 meetings and significant conversations with government officials. We get asked by less trusting folk than you what trustees talk about in closed session so we’ll tell you…sorta. There are a variety of projects at the tipping point. They all have different levels of employment, in different industries, with different pay levels, different abilities to attract workforce, different needs in order to make the projects work and only so much money to go around. Soooo, trustees looked at said projects, weighed aforementioned benefits and costs, evaluated priorities and finally told the staff to “go that way.” Now we can’t tell you which way that is other than to say that it involves job creation and economic growth. Any more information from closed session talk and we’d have to shoot you, or vote you off the prairie or whatever. UPCOMING.... Sun-Wed. Sept. 16-19: IEDC International Economic Development Summit, Phoenix Wed. Sept. 19th: National “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” (we’re not making this up) Fri. Sept. 21st: OK Gateway Regional Meeting, 10:30 a.m., Ponca City Chamber 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