Thursday, October 05, 2006

Railroad Crossroads

I was in Chicago for the Illinois Municipal League (IML) Conference to give my Hometown Entrepreneurs: Your New Paradigm Shift in Economic Development presentation. One of the honorees was the Greater Rochelle Economic Development Corporation (GREDCO) which has made great strides as a community in marshalling resources from various entities to be able to build a strong economic base.

At a time of political turnover and transition within the town, Jason Anderson who took over as head of GREDCO in 2004. He organized a strategic planning process which helped to prioritize projects for the community in addition to a number of other key initiatives. His resulting plan could have read from my BoomtownUSA book, but the common sense approach today has Rochelle poised for tremendous new jobs for its citizens.

I’ve visited and toured Rochelle probably a half dozen times in the past dozen years. I hope to get back again soon to see what new things they have going on as a town.

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