The City of Sun Valley has long given direct support to the tourism industry by returning a portion of its local option tax receipts to the Chamber of Commerce for marketing the area. 

For the first time in my memory, we are now engaged in another truly responsible governmental function, that of actual economic development. 

Earlier this year, the Sun Valley City Council, on a narrow 2-1 vote with only myself and Council member Lamb voting in favor, approved spending $25,000 from the local option tax to participate in a regional public/private economic partnership strategy for all of the Wood River Valley. It is called Sustain Blaine. There were quite a few skeptics at first, thinking it would be just another economic study of the area that would end up on the shelf collecting dust, or would provide only marginal new information. 

After several months, the effort is proving many skeptics wrong and is starting to show that a solid economic development strategy for Blaine County will make both short-term and long-term sense for our economic future. The operative word is “strategy.” This is not another study or plan, it is the development of an economic strategy.

I see this effort as a way to develop strategies to expand our economic base which in turn supports our core tourism base - a vital role government should play in securing our City’s and region’s future. 

A recent Editorial in the Idaho Mountain Express points to the importance of the Sustain Blaine effort (click here to read the Express editorial). 

I recently hosted a meeting with the economic consultant, TIP Strategies, and a group of Sun Valley entrepreneurs. It was a very productive session. We addressed many important infrastructure opportunities and strategies that can be added or enhanced to improve our economy.

A copy of the consultant’s most recent progress report on the development of the economic strategy is on my SlideShare site and available for anyone to view. It contains some excellent economic data on Blaine County as well. You can view it here as well:

This coming Tuesday, November 18^th from 9 am to Noon in the Community Room at the YMCA in Ketchum, there will be another occasion for the public to meet with the consultant to discuss the “opportunity” phase of the study (see page 10 of the slideshow above for the agenda). If you are interested, please feel free to stop by and give them your input during this public workshop.

(This originally appeared in my November 15, 2008 blog)