Discover rewarding casino experiences. 
Please Don't Quote Me If it had been the twenty-first century, Mary Melugin would have been bopping across the prairie with ear buds plugged into her head while lengthily texting or twittering more than the birds in the grove of trees she’d just passed. But it was only a few decades into the nineteenth century with little technology in everyday life. |
TCEDA In New Hands: Pepin Takes Over as Interim Executive DirectorBy Mick Parsons For The Prairie Advocate News
SAVANNA – Sharon Pepin comes to the Interim Executive Director’s Office at TCEDA fully aware of the challenges ahead and conscious of what is at stake. A grant writer for several communities in the region including Lanark, Milledgeville, and Mount Carroll, she brings considerable experience with her that she believes will be a benefit as TCEDA looks ahead and tries to make it’s presence known in the tri-county area. Originally from Chicago, she has coming to this area for many years; her family owns a house in the Galena Territory, and her mom used to own a children’s clothing shop in downtown Galena. Prior to going into business for herself, Pepin worked with MSA for 11 years. As a result, she was able to get to know the local communities and their issues first hand. She was also on the Board of Directors for the now defunct Carroll County Economic Development Corporation, whose offices TCEDA currently occupies. Pepin also worked with former director Randy Prasse when he began going around to local businesses and communities looking to build support for TCEDA. “Somebody’s got to step up to the plate,” she said about deciding to step in as interim Executive Director. Her appointment, which may only be for approximately 6 weeks, was something she decided to do because she believes in TCEDA’s purpose – which is to bring economic development to the Tri-county region. Economic Development has, over the years, become something of a dirty word around these parts, and Pepin is as aware of that as anyone. Part of the issue, as she sees it, has been communication. TCEDA needs to do a better job, she says, communicating with local governments, businesses, and other concerned entities. One of the issues TCEDA had during the most recent budget falderal in Carroll County is that some members of the board – among them Annette Rahn and Gerald Bork – expect to see more action from TCEDA and less talk. This is a misconception that Pepin knows all too well. She says it’s important to “show them something tangible.” Part of this will be accomplished through a newsletter she is working to put together, which will help open the lines of communication and give people a sense of what’s actually going on in TCEDA. Another big project for TCEDA continues to be the LOIS System, an online database of available real estate that, once completed, will enable businesses looking to relocate to look up areas in the Northwest corner of Illinois that suit their needs. Lately, the thing that TCEDA has been focused on, though, is retention. While it’s important to look ahead and begin building up infrastructure that will encourage businesses to come into this part of the state, it’s also important to keep the jobs here that are already here. While Pepin maintains, as did her predecessor Randy Prasse, that the key to the regions future lies in small and entrepreneurial businesses like Forster Products in Lanark, that keeping the businesses here that are already here is a huge deal . . . and not one that ought to be taken for granted. Pepin says “If I can go to a county board and say that we have not lost one single business, that’s huge.”
Loading
|
