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2009-12-06 BACK
Economic Development Day with Leadership Texarkana
Economic Development Day with Leadership Texarkana This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on December 6, 2009 Dr. Ed Bashaw, Dean, Texas A&M-Texarkana, College of Business I am privileged to serve on the Board for Leadership Texarkana. It is a non-profit organization whose mission it is to, "cultivate, connect and engage leaders for the well-being of the community." Each year approximately 25 leaders are chosen from an application pool to participate in eight full-day monthly sessions that revolve around topics of interest to current and future leaders of Texarkana. My assignment was to develop the economic development curriculum for Ruth Ellen Whitt (this year's Curriculum Director) for the November session. I assembled an all-star collection of speakers for this occasion. They were Brad McCaleb (Texarkana Metropolitan Planning Organization), Alex Perry (Cooper Tire), Kay O'Dell (Workforce Solutions of Northeast Texas), Ron Collins (JCM Industries), Charles Nickerson (Texarkana USA Chamber of Commerce), Jerry Sparks (City of Texarkana, TX), and Bill Cork (Red River Redevelopment Authority). In today's column I'll share some of the knowledge I gleaned from the speakers at the economic development session and my thoughts on four important keys to the future economy in Texarkana. As I've written before, we have been very fortunate in Texarkana to have largely, but not totally, missed the brunt of this recession. As I've also written, the timing of building projects in and around Texarkana has kept our local economy out of recession thus far. That's the good news. The downside is that these projects are temporary. Additionally, the Red River Army Depot, our largest local employer base (the combination of organizations estimated to employ between 5,000 to 7,000), provides employment to close to 10% of our total workforce. Over the next several years these employment numbers are expected to decrease significantly. I think the big question for Texarkana revolves around what the structure of our economy will be once the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down and the building projects are completed. So, what's next as we transition from these current economic conditions to the future? I believe there are four important keys that we all need to embrace to move Texarkana into a very favorable position. They are: 1) the expansion of Texas A&M University-Texarkana; 2) the transition of the Red River Army Depot from military-focused to a combination military-private industry base; 3) the transformation of Texarkana's transportation infrastructure to (eventually?!?) include two additional Interstate Highways; and 4) the diligent development of Texarkana's workforce to meet the quality and quantity hiring needs of current and future Texarkana-based organizations. Yes, these are very much inter-related. Undoubtedly there are other keys to economic development that I do not mention. My keys are not meant to be all inclusive. Rather, this list is what I believe to be the most important unique factors that affect our local economy and that we'll need to develop and leverage if we are to grow our economy in great ways. The first key I'll mention, and I apologize because I know it is self-serving, is the transition of Texas A&M University-Texarkana into a regionally expansive, comprehensive, four-year university with graduate programs. This is perhaps the most important key due to the great potential for economic impact. This impact will occur when A&M-Texarkana students and alumni make and spend money in our community, work and reside in our community, and build new businesses in our community. Another impact comes from the growth in University personnel and the building out of the new campus. We also benefit from businesses moving to Texarkana who wouldn't have considered doing so if not for the four-year university's presence. The United States Army and the Red River Redevelopment Authority are continuing to spell out the agreement that transitions the ownership of much of the Hooks/New Boston area housing the Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant from Army ownership to local ownership. The potential for economic development is breathtaking. If you haven't seen Judge Carlowe's and Bill Cork's presentation about the opportunities being considered for this site you can get more information (and I strongly encourage you to do so) at www.rrcp.org. In becoming an even bigger transportation and logistics hub, Texarkana already has the advantage of being the largest MSA on Interstate-30 between Dallas and Little Rock. We seem to be tantalizingly close to having not one, but two Interstates bisect I-30 in Texarkana. This will give us two valuable north-south corridors to complement our east-west corridor. We're close to having the southern leg of I-49 complete that gives us access to the port of New Orleans via Shreveport. This week the Texarkana Gazette reported on efforts to move forward the north of Texarkana leg of I-49 that would connect us to Kansas City and beyond. The I-69 project seems to be enjoying recent momentum. This artery would connect us to the ports of Houston and Corpus Christi to the south and down to the Mexican border. The northern leg would give us a route to Indianapolis, IN, and on to the Canadian border. These Interstates will act as a huge catalyst in transforming Texarkana into a transportation, logistics, and value-added manufacturing hub. No matter what happens, the real key to our future economy is people. Clearly we need people with capital and people with ideas to build organizations that take advantage of the coming changes. However, the foundation of any economy is the workforce. To adequately meet the demands created in the future Texarkana economy, there will be many new types of jobs that will be created. Our local institutions (think Northeast Texas Workforce Solutions, Texarkana College, A&M-Texarkana, local school districts, etc.) will need to focus on producing both the quantity and quality of workforce to grow our future. The day I spent listening, talking, and discussing economic development in Texarkana with the Leadership Texarkana group caused me to think about our future and my role in that future. I think that's the ultimate goal for Leadership Texarkana. If you are interested, more information about applying for next year's Leadership Texarkana class may be found at www.LeadershipTexarkana.org. As always, please send your questions and/or comments to me at Edward.Bashaw@tamut.edu.
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Economic Development Day with Leadership Texarkana
Economic Development Day with Leadership Texarkana This article originally appeared in the Texarkana Gazette on December 6, 2009 Dr. Ed Bashaw, Dean, Texas A&M-Texarkana, College of Business I am privileged to serve on the Board for Leadership Texarkana. It is a non-profit organization whose mission it is to, "cultivate, connect and engage leaders for the well-being of the community." Each year approximately 25 leaders are chosen from an application pool to participate in eight full-day monthly sessions that revolve around topics of interest to current and future leaders of Texarkana. My assignment was to develop the economic development curriculum for Ruth Ellen Whitt (this year's Curriculum Director) for the November session. I assembled an all-star collection of speakers for this occasion. They were Brad McCaleb (Texarkana Metropolitan Planning Organization), Alex Perry (Cooper Tire), Kay O'Dell (Workforce Solutions of Northeast Texas), Ron Collins (JCM Industries), Charles Nickerson (Texarkana USA Chamber of Commerce), Jerry Sparks (City of Texarkana, TX), and Bill Cork (Red River Redevelopment Authority). In today's column I'll share some of the knowledge I gleaned from the speakers at the economic development session and my thoughts on four important keys to the future economy in Texarkana. As I've written before, we have been very fortunate in Texarkana to have largely, but not totally, missed the brunt of this recession. As I've also written, the timing of building projects in and around Texarkana has kept our local economy out of recession thus far. That's the good news. The downside is that these projects are temporary. Additionally, the Red River Army Depot, our largest local employer base (the combination of organizations estimated to employ between 5,000 to 7,000), provides employment to close to 10% of our total workforce. Over the next several years these employment numbers are expected to decrease significantly. I think the big question for Texarkana revolves around what the structure of our economy will be once the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down and the building projects are completed. So, what's next as we transition from these current economic conditions to the future? I believe there are four important keys that we all need to embrace to move Texarkana into a very favorable position. They are: 1) the expansion of Texas A&M University-Texarkana; 2) the transition of the Red River Army Depot from military-focused to a combination military-private industry base; 3) the transformation of Texarkana's transportation infrastructure to (eventually?!?) include two additional Interstate Highways; and 4) the diligent development of Texarkana's workforce to meet the quality and quantity hiring needs of current and future Texarkana-based organizations. Yes, these are very much inter-related. Undoubtedly there are other keys to economic development that I do not mention. My keys are not meant to be all inclusive. Rather, this list is what I believe to be the most important unique factors that affect our local economy and that we'll need to develop and leverage if we are to grow our economy in great ways. The first key I'll mention, and I apologize because I know it is self-serving, is the transition of Texas A&M University-Texarkana into a regionally expansive, comprehensive, four-year university with graduate programs. This is perhaps the most important key due to the great potential for economic impact. This impact will occur when A&M-Texarkana students and alumni make and spend money in our community, work and reside in our community, and build new businesses in our community. Another impact comes from the growth in University personnel and the building out of the new campus. We also benefit from businesses moving to Texarkana who wouldn't have considered doing so if not for the four-year university's presence. The United States Army and the Red River Redevelopment Authority are continuing to spell out the agreement that transitions the ownership of much of the Hooks/New Boston area housing the Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant from Army ownership to local ownership. The potential for economic development is breathtaking. If you haven't seen Judge Carlowe's and Bill Cork's presentation about the opportunities being considered for this site you can get more information (and I strongly encourage you to do so) at www.rrcp.org. In becoming an even bigger transportation and logistics hub, Texarkana already has the advantage of being the largest MSA on Interstate-30 between Dallas and Little Rock. We seem to be tantalizingly close to having not one, but two Interstates bisect I-30 in Texarkana. This will give us two valuable north-south corridors to complement our east-west corridor. We're close to having the southern leg of I-49 complete that gives us access to the port of New Orleans via Shreveport. This week the Texarkana Gazette reported on efforts to move forward the north of Texarkana leg of I-49 that would connect us to Kansas City and beyond. The I-69 project seems to be enjoying recent momentum. This artery would connect us to the ports of Houston and Corpus Christi to the south and down to the Mexican border. The northern leg would give us a route to Indianapolis, IN, and on to the Canadian border. These Interstates will act as a huge catalyst in transforming Texarkana into a transportation, logistics, and value-added manufacturing hub. No matter what happens, the real key to our future economy is people. Clearly we need people with capital and people with ideas to build organizations that take advantage of the coming changes. However, the foundation of any economy is the workforce. To adequately meet the demands created in the future Texarkana economy, there will be many new types of jobs that will be created. Our local institutions (think Northeast Texas Workforce Solutions, Texarkana College, A&M-Texarkana, local school districts, etc.) will need to focus on producing both the quantity and quality of workforce to grow our future. The day I spent listening, talking, and discussing economic development in Texarkana with the Leadership Texarkana group caused me to think about our future and my role in that future. I think that's the ultimate goal for Leadership Texarkana. If you are interested, more information about applying for next year's Leadership Texarkana class may be found at www.LeadershipTexarkana.org. As always, please send your questions and/or comments to me at Edward.Bashaw@tamut.edu.
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