Logan County’s Economic Development Council hosted its quarterly luncheon at the Guthrie campus of Meridian Technology Center this past Wednesday, with a focus on strategic planning and partnerships for the county going forward.
The well-attended luncheon included business and civic representatives from across the county and beyond. Guthrie, Coyle, Langston and Crescent were represented, along with Chamber of Commerce members from Guthrie and Kingfisher; Guthrie Public Schools; Meridian Technology Center; F&M Bank; Interbank; BancFirst; and several other local businesses.
Council Director Kellian Schneider outlined her indevelopment strategic plan for the Council, consisting of four main points: * The need for a county-wide inventory of available commercial properties. “There are no comprehensive listings, even with Realtors,” she said, since many available properties are not listed formally, either for purchase or for lease. This prevents businesses or individuals who might be interested in commercial or industrial space from connecting with those owners and discourages investment.
* The need to serve better as a support resource for businesses in the county, specifically in providing connections to facilities and services, and assisting both start-ups and established firms in procuring needed capital via lending or outside investment.
* Developing new collaborative partnerships, both with businesses as well as government and civic entities. She specifically mentioned the existing partnership between the Council and the U.S. Department of Agriculture around rural development and loan
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* Investigating modifications to the Council’s existing lending programs, emphasizing how critical that will be moving forward in the current climate of interest rate increases. The Council will be looking to provide flexibility and attractive interest rates to continue to encourage businesses to look to lending for their capital and growth needs.
Kenneth Corn, State Director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, followed up on Schneider’s strategic points regarding lending and rural development. He discussed the USDA’s goals around both economic development and community development, with a focus on both emerging and expanding businesses.
He also noted that the USDA provided more than $126 million in guaranteed loans to businesses statewide in the past year.
Also, he said, the USDA seeks to further help with expansion of the critical infrastructure needed by businesses in rural areas, not only water and power, but especially continued focus on recent efforts in expanding rural broadband access. To this end, Corn pointed to the $40 million in water and wastewater funding provided to state communities by the USDA this year.
Finally, he talked about the Department doing more to connect rural businesses and communities with available money, not just from the USDA, but across all government.
The luncheon’s final speaker was Martie Oyler, Manager of Economic Development for Oklahoma Natural Gas. She discussed ONG’s commitment to spurring economic development in rural communities by being a strong utility partner to rural and micropolitan development. ONG’s partnership focus covers four areas: Collaborative partnerships to help local communities stimulate economic growth; going the extra mile to ensure that communities and businesses have gas service available at all times; working to develop and provide forward-looking potential energy solutions to meet efficiency, reliability, and sustainability goals; and being a personal advocate for businesses, working directly to help them with completion of their natural gas infrastructure via assigned project managers and other personnel. Oyler also briefly gave the floor to Rocky Chavez, Strategic Planning Analyst for Commercial Development at ONE Gas, to discuss initiatives and research around development of, and transition to, new energy sources such as hydrogen fuel. ONE Gas has multiple efforts going in the area of hydrogen technology, working with Gas Technology, for instance, on viability studies for integrating hydrogen into existing pipeline infrastructure.
ONE Gas also is a stakeholder in a U.S. Dept. of Energy program, working on research dedicated around hydrogen-blending concentrations and pipeline material development to ensure safe and sustainable long-term infrastructure for hydrogen pipelines and transport. ONE Gas has invested more than $11 million in technology development over the past 15 years, with more than $1.1 million in outlays to 84 projects in 2021 alone.