Delta County Area Chamber of Commerce

Minding our own business for April 8, 2006
Linda Hirvonen, Delta County EDA

Delta Force’s Delta Class has ideas for the future of Delta County.

As part of our Economic Development Day, we ask participants to brainstorm some short-term (2-3 years) and long term (5-25 years) visions for Delta County. Following are the participants’ self-determined top priority ideas:

Downtowns:
• Develop and support historical pathways, walkways, and experiences while encouraging people to shop. Also listed was to develop a “fun atmosphere” in downtowns. As an example of this concept, when I at a car rally last year, the organizers had a “poker walk” which took participants – mostly spouses of the car guys- into a wide variety of shops to get their cards. Guided walking tours of architecture and historical legends are a big hit in larger cities.
• Have a place for people to buy local souvenirs and keep shops open later especially in summer. Evening and weekend hours would not only serve the tourists, but also residents. If downtowns had an evening “buzz,” it may draw people downtown as well as making it more convenient for working residents.
• Offer incentives for franchise businesses to move downtown. Franchises seem to cluster on North Lincoln Road, but perhaps if there is an incentive to offset the uncertainty of numbers of shoppers downtown, they might be more willing. Incentives might include city owned buildings, tax incentives, zero interest loans, guaranteed incomes etc.

Waterfronts:
• Have ferry service from municipal dock(s) to places like Fayette, Washington Island, Door County.
• Connect with other boating communities. Cross referrals and excursion/event planning among boating communities could help float everyone’s boat. This also ties in, of course, with downtowns and tourism, as both Escanaba and Gladstone’s marinas are walkable to their downtowns and are municipally owned. Planning events or excursions and means for transportation for the boaters while they are in the community seems a reasonable extension of hospitality that would add value to their boating experience.
• Create a large marina related retailer near one of the marinas.
• Offer activities Ludington Park every weekend during “the season” and frequently offer winter-related activities. To add to this idea, if the cities and the county could coordinate activities, we could have some public event or activity somewhere in the county every single weekend and each community would only have the “work” of one a month.

Tourism:
• Work to identify key audiences and target/tailor events and marketing to them. Two of their specific examples 1) Bringing events like the National Field Trials for Retrievers to this area. It ties in well with the hunting and outdoor sports themes popular with visitors as well as regional dog enthusiasts and does not take a lot of money to establish a “course” for the trials. 2) Hosting more hockey, skating and other ice related tournaments and competitions as we have two sheets of ice and these events tend to bring extended families for 2-4 nights per event.
• Keep our fishing tournaments, but consider adding other tournaments to fill out the year. Especially think about the “off seasons” and what events could draw people here.
• Create a full service resort that could accommodate the higher end leisure traveling family as well as perhaps some smaller conferences.
• Build a true convention center to provide opportunities to compete for conventions and larger conferences.
• Build lakeshore mixed use development to include condominiums and retail

Other:
• Partner with Southern community for “shared citizens.” This creative thinker says, “We could partner with a community in Florida, and allow retirees to have two homes, with a pricing structure similar to the purchase of one home. We could provide transportation north and south, have event-planners for various clubs (like they currently have in retirement communities in Florida). If these dwellings are strategically located, they could be rented out on a weekly basis when vacant…e.g., ice-fishing tournaments, ski-package rentals, etc. here during the winter, and Orlando vacations, golf-packages, etc. in the summer in Florida.”
• Create housing development(s) geared toward the younger or more affluent who might relocate here – like townhomes or complexes.
• Develop technology industry.
• Reinstate Commercial Fishing.
• Extend “buy local” promotions to include local or UP regional agricultural products. Create a way to encourage shoppers even when in national chains to choose the local potatoes or vegetables or diary products even if they are a couple cents more than “generic” brands or “sale items” offered.
• Find ways to allow people with a passion for living here to stay. This suggestion was especially directed at young people and young adults. Explore ways to have people stay here to finish educations or to get them back once they do complete their degrees.
• Consider building a recycling plant to handle waste products. This could not only increase jobs but reduce the amount of land required for landfill use.
• Two ideas were specific to Escanaba: developing the North 30th Corridor and Old State Road as a housing and mixed use corridors.

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