Small towns can succeed By Stephanie Middaugh, Truth Staff NAPPANEE -- Any small town can become a boomtown. So says author Jack Schultz, who's devoted 15 years to researching why some small towns thrive while others remain stagnant or die. For his research, the author evaluated 15,800 towns, ranging in size from 190 to 52,000 people, which lie outside metropolitan areas. He named the towns "agburbs -- small towns in rural America having the potential for successful markets." From those towns, Schultz selected his "Golden Eagles" -- the 100 top agburbs in America. In Indiana, Greencastle and Columbus made the final cut. "Those towns show vitality and maintain a diversity of businesses," Schultz said this week to attendees at a workshop sponsored by Nappanee's Community and Economic Development office. "There were more examples of these type of communities in Indiana than any other state." "At first, I thought money invested into revitalizing main streets rather than industrial development was like throwing money down a rat hole," Schultz said. "But now many people are moving out of the big cities to escape the rat race. They want to move to small, charming towns that offer a sense of place." Schultz attributes the recent migration of people to the agburbs to cheaper air travel, availability of the Internet and telecommuting, deregulation of transportation, desire for a better quality of life and lower cost of living. "In the past, we thought that a small town needed to be near a highway, within 100 miles of a metropolitan area and have a four-year college to survive," he said. "Now, successful small towns are in the middle of nowhere. To survive, Schultz said a small town must first have a "can-do" attitude with strong support from local elected officials and residents who have a vested interest in the community. A town must also work hard to shape its vision, gathering public input and setting priorities on its goals. When considering economic development, a town should build on its own strengths and resources, businesses and institutions, natural and man-made resources (lakes, views) or local flavor. "This is the essence of your town," Schultz said. "It's the great strength or attribute that distinguishes it from other small towns." Small towns must raise up strong leaders and develop their own entrepreneurs to help boost the local economy. "Hometown entrepreneurs are the new paradigm shift in economic development," he said. "Less time should be spent on going after the few, big elephant companies, and more time should be spent on developing entrepreneurial communities. "There are always going to be those 'citizens against virtually everything' (CAVEs)," Schultz said. "But small towns must take chances to grow."
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