Author underscores keys to successful communities
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"If you take your cues from the national media, it’s easy to understand the distress that many small towns are experiencing. When much of the talk you hear is that half of all communities are losing jobs and people, but what about the other half?" inquired Jack Schultz, author of the new book entitled, Boomtown USA: The 7 1/2 Keys to Big Success in Small Towns. He continued, "What I propose to you is the alternative to that kind of negative thinking." Schultz spoke Wednesday at the Salem Community Activities Center to local residents about the great possibilities for success that exist in small-town America. |
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Schultz has spent the last 15 years delving into the reasons why some communities fail financially and others soar. What initially began as a simple question, became an entire thesis about how individuals can make a positive difference in their respective community for an enduring effect. "What you often don’t hear about are the tremendous great things happening in the agurbs of America," stated the author and chief executive officer of Agracel, a high-speed industrial development company based in Effingham. "Agurb" is a term coined by Schultz to indicate a rural town with a tie to agriculture and a location outside a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). "To be an agurb, a town has to have experienced growth in population or employment from 1990 to 2000 and have per capita income growing at more than two percent per year from 1989 to 1999. Not all small towns are prospering - and therefore not all are classified as agurbs," states Schultz in his book. Schultz invited the thoughts of those in attendance to the consideration of the mindset of citizens of agurbs. "These towns are different sizes, they are found in different locations, and have an individual identity. The one commonality that I noticed in all of them however, was the deeply-rooted intrinsic nature of their CAN-DO attitude. Everything in a small town’s success points back to the belief of citizens in themselves and their fellow community members," commented Schultz. The presentation cited numerous agurban towns across the United States, to include the Illinois towns of Mt. Vernon, Marion, Peru, and Effingham. Additionally, Marion, was named to the Golden Eagles list, which indicates a placement in the top 100 agurbs. The significance of the Golden Eagles was the job increase ratio. Collectively, the Golden Eagles created one new job out of every nine jobs that were created in the United States from January 2000 to December 2003. Explaining the phenomenon, Schultz said, "If this were to happen in the state of Maryland, let’s say, where one out of every nine jobs in the country was created in that one state, you would have international news organizations from across the globe coming to find out why this was taking place. The reason this remarkable trend is not getting attention is because it is spread out across 39 different states." Schultz’s book is dedicated to informing citizens of rural towns about this amazing transformation and the necessary approaches to becoming an attractive location in which businesses and industries would desire to implant themselves. Schultz reiterated the necessity of maintaining a positive attitude in the face of tough times, and being versatile and open to new ideas. "The great baseball player Yogi Berra once said, ‘If you come to a fork in the road, take it,’ and that is what I have found the mindset of an agurb to encompass," asserted Schultz. Another point stressed by Schultz is the fact that industries and businesses often prefer to exist in smaller towns because of a number of reasons. "The cost of living in small-town America is so significantly lower than the major metropolitan areas, that businesses can better afford to pay the work force," explained the author. "When you consider that it only takes $45,000 per year to live at the same standard in an agurb as it requires $100,000 per year to live in a MSA, there’s a lot of potential for businesses and industries to operate in those areas." Schultz also stated one of the reasons small towns are attractive stems from the ideologies many agurban-minded people have toward hard work and commitment. He noted his finds about the Golden Eagle agurbs when analyzing the collection of data he gathered for the text of his research. "What I thought I would find was significantly different than what was discovered," affirmed Schultz. More than two-thirds of the agurbs were located further than 100 miles from a major metropolitan area, only half were located on an interstate highway, and only 16 had a four-year post-secondary educational facility located within the town. These statistics lay in stark contrast to Schultz’s initial assumptions. While the presentation exhorted citizens to adopt the kind of attitude that would attract industries to move in, another factor given considerable mention was the importance of attracting the right kind of business or industry. To this, Schultz warned against a community putting all of its eggs in one basket by saying, "There are some kinds of industries that you won’t want. These are typically the huge operations that require a massive portion of a local population working in one facility. One of the things we realized in Effingham a few years ago was the importance of a diverse blend of different smaller industries. That allows for more stability, because if one company goes out of business, it won’t break the entire community." Schultz listed a few of the best industries that would fill that role more effectively. Cited were food companies, plastics, and automotive parts manufacturing. He concluded the presentation by saying, "You can be just like any of these other communities. All you have to do is take the first step, and that is believing that you can get there. Then do it, and be relentless in your pursuit thereof." By Beau Howe |
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