Perry County Tribune:
What Do The Commissioners Do To Bring Business Into Perry County?
This article, written by Ben Carpenter, was first published in The Perry County Tribune on July 5, 2017.
As Commissioners, we are constantly looking for and encouraging businesses to locate in Perry County. I believe that most villages officials and township trustees share that objective. Most officials are willing to assist good productive business in their efforts to open in their respective area.
Each village and township is an entity within the County so whenever partnerships and collaborative efforts can take place between the village/township and the County, everyone benefits. Our goal is listen to the view of the public and the potential business and work toward the best outcome possible. However, with any change that is planned there will always be someone that will disagree with a that change, regardless of the benefits it will bring.Dollar General stores have recently opened in three locations in Perry County, New Straitsville, Moores Junction and Thornport. They were all met with varied degrees of positive and negative comments.
Often, we hear Perry County Described as a “bedroom community”. This is a community that has little or no business or commerce, only residential housing, and people travel outside of their community to work and shop. Some folks are happy to keep it exactly like that, and like to travel to shop the big chain stores in the big cities for the absolute lowest prices, and come home, and away from all the hustle and bustle.
However, I am like many others that want business development within Perry County and the ability and opportunity to shop local and patronize local business owners, not the big chain stores. I prefer to give my business to our local gas stations, restaurants and stores. Of course, it is impossible to purchase everything needed within Perry County and sometimes it costs a few pennies more to shop local, that is a decision each person has to make for themselves.
I try to keep in mind a great quote. “Every time you open your wallet, you cast a vote for the kind of world you want to live in”. If everyone seeks out the big chain stores to purchase the cheapest products from China then that is all that will be available. If everyone seeks out the cheapest groceries shipped in from California and Mexico then that is what will be in the grocery stores. I prefer to shop local and seasonal for fresh vine ripened produce grown close to home.
So, what can your County Commissioners do to bring in business or keep them out? Not much really. I have heard some people claim that we give some businesses cheap government loans to come into the county. I don’t know of anytime that has happened, and I can assure you we have no program in place to do that today. Villages and some townships have zoning regulations in place and through that process have the ability to stop a business from coming into their respective jurisdiction. At this time, there is no County wide zoning regulations in place.
Some people feel that business in the County is great, just not in their neighborhood. For example, most folks feel the landfills are great, as long as it is not close to them. (NIMBY, Not in my back yard). Some people are ok with growth as long as it’s not close them and its located in another part of the County. As commissioners, we are going to try to support good planning and good businesses as they look to open and expand in Perry county.
We are going sit down and talk with every business that wants to talk with us about the possibility of moving into the county. Contrary to the believe of some, your commissioners do not want to “sell out” to all businesses looking to open in the county solely to increase the tax revenue at the expense of all other concerns. We take great lengths to consider all the facts and listen to every voice.
I ask you and encourage you to call us at the office 740-342-2045, if you have questions about something we may be involved with, before developing an opinion based on social media outlets.
Join us for the monthly public comment session July 20th 1:00 at the commissioner’s office.
