Year like no other expected for local development

"Look out!" is a better way of predicting Springfield's coming year than the word "Outlook."

Changes in the business environment will cause many folks to sit up and take notice.

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce sees exciting changes in four major areas:

Economic development

Public education

Center city revitalization

Regional cooperation

Economic development will feel a boost as a second industrial park becomes reality.

In the coming 12 months, the Springfield Business and Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the chamber, will acquire a site for the industrial park and meet with its member investor financial institutions to hammer out financing arrangements.

Though it will be several more months before new companies can call the park home, the first phase of infrastructure development will begin in 2000.

In the spring of the year, a trio of candidates for the Springfield R-XII Board of Education will carry the endorsement of the chamber to the April 4 election.

These candidates, the first to be endorsed under a new policy approved last year, will have been interviewed by the chamber's Education Task Force on a range of issues.

The task force's recommendations will be brought to the chamber board of directors and up to three candidates will receive endorsements.

The candidate recruitment and endorsement policy is only part of the chamber's stepped-up role in public education. The board hopes to hold dialogues with the school board and assist with communication to the business and professional community as Springfield schools move into a new century of learning.

Springfield's center city will begin a transformation like the town has never before seen.

The streetscapes of Jordan Valley Park will take shape, construction on an ice-skating rink will begin and demolition of structures will create park-like open spaces.

What this means for business is that residents will find new reasons to visit center city, visitors will make Jordan Valley Park an unexplored destination and new businesses will spring up to meet their needs.

Late last year, the chamber joined with 35 cities, counties and chambers of commerce in the region to form a partnership that will focus on local economic development.

In 2000, Allen Kunkel, formerly with the Missouri Department of Economic Development and now the first manager of regional development for our chamber, will help form new alliances to keep existing businesses flourishing, and even expanding.

There will be new employment opportunities and additional capital investment. Common issues such as transportation and community development will now get a regional emphasis.

When it is time to seek legislation that will benefit the region, the program will flex its new muscles. This one-voice approach is a new way of doing business, and it will prove to be critical to the long-term economic vitality of southwest Missouri.

So, look out, Springfield. The outlook for our city has never been more exciting.

(James B. Anderson is president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.)