Plan for Economic Development & Jobs

Download a PDF of this plan here.


The goal of this economic development plan is to encourage entrepreneurship, to retain our traditional resource-based industries, and to provide needed support for our most-promising industry sectors.

The industries that have been identified as having the best potential for future economic and workforce growth share some common characteristics: 
  • They are export-oriented, with a large customer base from outside the area.
  • They compete on quality and innovation, rather than on price alone.
  • They offer career potential for local employees.
As Supervisor I will work to create increased ownership within the community and would support and encourage the creation of new jobs. There is great potential for the growth of mid-wage level jobs, paying annual wages of $25,000 to $45,000.  Among our most promising industry sectors, almost half of all job growth has been in this mid-wage level. 

These sectors comprise 39% of all private sector employment in our region, and provide 53% of private sector wages.  During the period of 1990 to 2003, the number of businesses in these growing sectors increased by 23%, compared with an increase of only 1.5% for all industry sectors combined.

As Supervisor I will work to:

Help good ideas get off the ground
  • Connect entrepreneurs with start-up capital and low-interest loans
  • Provide business support services and training
  • Develop “incubators” for industry clusters
Help existing businesses grow
  • Provide zoned and ready-to-build sites for light industry
  • Seek funding for brownfield cleanup
  • Provide incentives for job creation
Help retain and recover resource-based industries
  • Keep working lands in production
  • Support efforts to develop large-scale community forestry
  • Advocate for large-scale watershed restoration efforts
Provide needed infrastructure
  • Second fiber-optic line
  • Provide broadband service to remote areas
Help provide needed access to markets
  • Suppot Richardson Grove realignment while ensuring the health of the grove
  • Support Option A for port development to create on-shore infrastructure for short-sea shipping / coastal barging
Help ensure a ready workforce for future industries
  • Work with local schools to provide education in fields needed locally
  • Encourage training in industrial arts and technology
  • Develop “talent pool” for high-tech sector
Help develop renewable energy research as an industry cluster
  • Support continuing research into wind, solar, wave and biomas
  • Connect wave-energy research with local talent and resources
  • Develop local training for Green Building among construction trades