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Story Archives: Economic alliance looks to be operational by Jan. 1


Economic alliance looks to be operational by Jan. 1
by Scott Rogers - posted Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 @ 4:29 pmE-mail Story E-mail Story | Print Story Print Story 
North Louisiana Economic Partnership.

That's the new name of a new economic development alliance, comprised of Ouachita, Lincoln, Morehouse, Jackson and Union parishes.

NLEP unveiled its new name at a meeting Monday with local officials and community representatives. Alliance leaders said they will meet their goal of raising $1 million this year. They also said a chief executive officer will be hired by Jan. 1, 2009, to run the new alliance.

One of the goals the new alliance hopes to achieve entails creating 1,500 new, high-quality jobs, with a payroll of $30 million to $40 million annually. The new jobs would bring about $450 million in new capital investments to the area.

Rob Radcliff with Research Development Group of Ohio said the group has raised $600,000.

NLEP wants to raise $3 million over a three-year period.

Research Development Group has been working with the new regional alliance for the past 18 months to develop a marketing plan and fundraising campaign.

For the next three years, the regional alliance would use $1 million per year for marketing/image enhancement, new business recruitment, administration purposes, special projects and existing industrial support.

The regional alliance effort dates back to 2006 when "there was an acknowledgement that we could be doing economic development better in this five-parish region," Radcliff said. "It was that simple."

"We weren't getting our fair share of jobs, our fair share of economic investment," Radcliff said. "There was a commitment to come together and start talking about that."
Competitive Strategies Group of Atlanta, Ga., was hired shortly thereafter to conduct a study on what the area could do to promote more economic development.

That study was presented to local leaders in March 2007, where it was proposed a regional alliance among neighboring parishes should be formed to pursue economic development interests.

"That report was very crystallizing in a lot of ways because it identified some real opportunities for this five-parish region," Radcliff explained. "It showed that there are things we can be doing better, and there are opportunities we are not taking advantage of."

"It's no doubt that this North Louisiana Economic Partnership will be something that will be very valuable to our economy, our region, and to the growth of our area," said Bob Griffin, chairman of Monroe Chamber of Commerce.

"It's something that's been in the works for a while, and I think we're getting to the meat of it," Griffin said. "They're working to create an environment that our businesses can thrive in. Not one area will be able to do this; it will take the efforts of all involved."

Local businessmen Todd Perry and James Moore have been involved in developing the regional alliance. They expect the new alliance will have a final slate of CEO candidates by Oct. 14.

Perry expects the regional alliance will make a decision on a CEO by mid-November.
"This thing is getting very close to the finish line," Perry said. "We'll be operational come Jan. 1, and once it takes off, there's no looking back."

Moore believes north Louisiana is at a crossroads economically.

"For so many years we have talked about economic development, but I think we all know we've been divided," Moore said. "That's been our problem."

"It has been proven that when an industry comes in, they don't look at individual cities or parishes, they look at the region," Moore continued. "I think the light bulb has finally gone off … when new industry comes to our area, whether they go to Lincoln or Morehouse, we all benefit. It's all about creating jobs for our area.

"I truly believe this is our last opportunity to come together and generate jobs and turn this economy around."

Besides Moore and Perry, the new economic alliance is being led by James Davison, a Ruston businessman; Randy Ewing, former Senate president; Glen Post, CEO of CenturyTel; and Elton Kennedy, an agri-businessman from Mer Rouge.
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