The future of Cheney’s economic development and business growth looks to rest with the people already working to make a living in the city.
A cooperative effort orchestrated by the Cheney Merchants Association (CMA) plans to draw the ideas of business leaders and others in the community to map a route to grow new business and help those already here.
“The Mayor (Tom Trulove) and I talked about this six months ago,” Doug Nixon, CMA president and Cheney City Council member said. The next move is to assemble the volunteer committee.
The big question for someone looking to relocate is what is the advantage of relocating to Cheney?
“We’ve got cheap water, cheap electricity,” Nixon said. ”We can’t offer them any real discounts in money because we can’t say you don’t have to pay taxes like New York City; move to New York and you don’t have to pay taxes for 10 years.”
The Cheney business license, a bargain at $30, is also attractive, Nixon said.
At the heart of the effort is the CMA, which Nixon hopes can grow to 100 members and could provide funds to help cover the cost of someone to work part-time to sell the city to businesses.
One of the challenges that is often raised by potential businesses is the status of State Route 904. Cheney hoped, but did not get the support in the last legislative session. But the efforts continue.
“There has been a great deal of effort put into improving State Route 904 and the rail line from Cheney,” Trulove said. That will continue in the next session of the Washington Legislature that meets in January 2017.
The positives seem to outnumber the negatives when it comes to businesses establishing roots here, Nixon said. “There’s the university, the airport is not far away, there’s a lot of kids who could work part-time or full-time,” he said.
The Cheney Commerce and Industrial Park on the west end of the city is geared to attract tenants. “We have to get the right companies in here,” Nixon said. “That’s something we have never really looked at.”
But having a vibrant small business community is the foundation, according to Trulove.
“Day in, day out, one of the things that’s going to help development more than anything is nurturing the small businesses that exist or those who have ideas to try something new,” he said.
Trulove would like to see some sort of business incubator program in Cheney. While the city cannot likely create these incubators, organizations like the local merchants group can.
“You get somebody in there with very low rent, they get started,” Trulove said. “If they’re successful, you graduate them in a couple of years.”
The committee’s formation is still a work in progress and both Trulove and Nixon invite interested parties to contact them through the CMA or at their places of business.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)