Construction industry builds area's economy

Surprise: The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is all about construction.

Oh, yes, we're best known for promoting the economic health of the Springfield area. But by focusing on that mission, the result is growth and development and there's no growth or development without the design and construction industry.

Because of the industry's enormous impact on our economic environment here in the Ozarks, the chamber congratulates and honors those laborers, businesspeople and suppliers during the 1999 Salute to Design & Construction.

Statistics for the construction industry reflect our community's economic health. This industry contributes more than $700 million to our local economy each year. It employs 7,700 people and provides salaries and benefits in excess of $175 million annually.

Sales of building materials alone have increased 40 percent locally since 1995, largely because of the vitality of the construction industry. While organizations such as the chamber of commerce work at the front end to facilitate the growth and expansion of our economy, the construction industry works from the other end to put in place the physical evidence of these efforts.

And there's plenty of evidence in Springfield and the surrounding area of just how successful these efforts are.

Take an afternoon to meander around our city and you'll see it everywhere: New homes being built, new commercial buildings going up, road construction and intersection improvements abound. And in the near future, we can look forward to even more, like the Wonders of Wildlife Museum and all the downtown development that will make up Civic Park. None of this would be possible without the construction industry.

The realization of another huge project on the horizon the building of Springfield's second world-class industrial park will rely on our partners in construction.

With a target completion date of late 2000, the industrial park will spark new design and construction. New roads will be built, utilities installed and, of course, new manufacturing facilities that will locate in the park must be constructed. The end result of this project will be an even stronger local economy.

So, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce is pleased to join others in our community in recognizing our friends in the construction industry. Count ours as just one of at least 99 salutes during this year's program, themed, "Salute '99: 99 Salutes."

(Sonja Chasteen is manager of business assistance for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.)