A united community
Area counties are linked culturally and economically, but can local leaders capitalize on that fact to create prosperity?

By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Friday, March 13, 2009 11:52 AM PDT

Traffic and commerce travel between Oregon and Idaho on the Snake River Bridge, between Ontario and Fruitland. City and county officials on both sides of the river are moving to work closer together, saying there is more that ties the communities together than divides them. Local employment statistics include people and numbers from both states.

ONTARIO — Economic and business developers in Malheur County are working together to develop a single online site to market the county, while city and county leaders are working with their counterparts across the river in Payette and Washington counties to set up a marketing agency to serve this specific area.

Dubbed the “Eastern Oregon Economic Development portal,” the proposed area Web site will lead users to a variety of links within the county, including county government, cities, chambers of commerce, schools and other agencies. 

Working on the site are Jim Jensen, Malheur County economic development director; Andrea Testi, director the Treasure Valley Community College Small Business Development Center; John Breidenbach, executive director of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce; and Alan Daniels, Ontario airport manager and city economic development director.

 “It’s going to cover Malheur County,” Testi said. “The information will be about the county.”

The site will be used to provide businesses and families interested in looking to situate in the county a starting place to begin researching the area, even if they don’t know the name of a specific location, Testi said. The goal is to unveil the Web site June 1.

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A DVD is being also prepared as an additional tool to present the county to prospective businesses.

They address the issue of,  “How do we market this area,” Daniels said.

 On another front, an effort to set up an organization to establish joint effort to promote the three-county area is underway. The plan centers on combining resources and funds for a marketing office, Daniels said.

 “No business was ever successful waiting for somebody to find them,”  he said. “We’re not competing against each other. Our competition is Ohio and Kentucky.”

Tentatively called Snake River Development Alliance, there is an informal board of directors, he said, and the group is working to obtain non-profit status and is working on a budget.

“The goal is to attract jobs to the area,” Jensen said. “They are manufacturing jobs. They are not retail jobs.”