Sunday, November 23, 2008

EDITORIAL: Entrepreneurial Communities Grant Is A Winner

Gov. Dave Heineman last week announced that nearly $320,000 in grants funding had been awarded to 13 Nebraska communities through the Building Entrepreneurial Communities Act (BECA), which supports regional economic and community development partnerships in rural areas of the state.

According to the governor, BECA is a successful tool for rural development in part because it "brings city and counties together with local partners to promote a stronger regional economy."

Some of the projects receiving grants include:

  • $32,355 for the towns of Red Cloud and Guide Rock to promote regional businesses.

  • $39,600 for Dawson County and the city of Cozad to create marketing materials to help attract and retain residents, promote the Dawson County Careers Web site to those outside Nebraska, and provide entrepreneurship training in technical trades for area youth.

  • $32,000 for the Panhandle village of Lewellen and Garden County Schools to develop entrepreneurship skills among students and local residents, as well as develop green industry and eco-tourism opportunities.

  • $36,000 for the Norfolk Area Recruiters Initiative, a partnership between the cities of Battle Creek, Madison and Norfolk and Cuming County, to implement a recruiting campaign aimed at former northeast Nebraska residents that includes Web site development and direct mail.

  • $36,315 for a partnership between Phelps County and the village of Funk for marketing campaign to recruit alumni and others with compelling local connections to move back to the area.

It is worth noting that only 18 partnerships applied for funding this year. Again, 13 projects were funded.

We at the Times like the idea of smaller communities working together to grow their businesses and retain their younger residents. Perhaps the new members of the Dorchester Village Board can convince their peers that Dorchester needs to become more aggressive in forming a long-term strategy that includes partnering with local businesses and the school in pursuit of statewide grants -- and to allow and encourage the use of village staff resources to do so.

Maybe the members of Dorchester Area Community Association can work with the Village Board or help raise funds to provide matching dollars to improve the chances of Dorchester landing one of these statewide grants.

The BECA program seems to be a good place to start. (For more information on BECA or the application process, contact Linda Fettig at (308) 749-2291, or email linda.fettig@ded.ne.gov.) We know there are bright, energetic folks in other small Saline County communities, such as Friend and Wilber, who would jump at the opportunity to collaborate with Dorchester on such an effort. It's worth a look.

3 comments:

  1. I am glad you mentioned collaborating with other communities. Especially Wilber. We're all in this together!

    Děkuju (Thank You)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I too like the mention of working with friend or wilber.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi - we'd love to work with any of you. Need to correct my contact information - phone is now 308-380-4966 and the email is linda.fettig@nebraska.gov. Feel free to contact me. Linda

    ReplyDelete

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.