By Ann Marie Swan
Like a siren’s song, economic development efforts are meant to lure new businesses to the Arkansas Valley. These efforts must also support and enhance deeply rooted local businesses. Keeping both pieces of the economic puzzle in mind, the billion-dollar question remains: how do we retain and create sustainable jobs while maintaining the area’s character and charm?
The members of the Chaffee County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC) tackle this question daily. They’ll tell you there isn’t one answer, but a few. This corporation considers the big economic picture. Its purpose is to find solutions, manifest living-wage jobs and facilitate sustainable economic development. The CCEDC might as well shout from the mountaintops, “Chaffee County is open for business.”