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Clarke County 'get's it' A few years ago a community of 1,800 in west Alabama was successful in attracting a small company with 15 jobs to locate there. As is usually the case, the parent company moved a young man from their corporate office to the new location to manage the operation. Several months later I asked the city clerk how the company was doing. "Great," she replied. "In fact, the manager has gone back home to get his wife to come up and look around our community." "Where do they live?" I asked. "West Palm Beach," the clerk said. This is a classic example of why community development is so important, especially in rural Alabama. When the husband got to west Alabama he was looking at how much the power company charged per kilowatt hour, what was the prevailing wage rate, how many potential employees he could find, what was the rent on the existing building, etc? But the wife had a whole different set of questions. Like where will my children go to school, where will I take them to the doctor, how far is it to a good grocery store, where is the nearest shopping center, etc.? However, it is often difficult to get leadership in many rural communities to understand the importance of community development. Instead, they put all their resources and time into recruiting new jobs and pay little attention to how outsiders" may perceive the community they're trying to bring them to. It's as if you invite company over for supper- but have no dishes on which to serve them. It is obvious that folks in Clarke County "get it" when it comes to community development. This was apparent at the recent annual meeting of the Clarke County Development Foundation in Fulton when reports were given dealing with helping parents be better able to nuture preschoolers, recreation projects, wireless communications, the impact of tourism, leadership development and much more. Yes, it is vitally important to go after new industry. But it is equally as important to improve education, to improve quality of life, to have youngsters ready to learn when they get to school, to be able to access the internet in today's global economy and to have recreational options. Communities are built on five foundations--education, health care, a diversified economy, physical infrastructure and civic infrastructure. A healthy community is a puzzle made up of many pieces, all of them important. Clarke County figured this out several years ago and those who have worked tirelessly to make the CCDF a reality are to be commended. The people of Clarke County have created something that every rural county in Alabama would be smart to study and try to duplicate.
Larry Lee is Director of the Center for Rural Alabama, a division of the Alabama Department of Agriculture & Industries. larry.lee@agi.alabama. gov
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