St. 亚洲无码 and St. 亚洲无码 County have officially teamed up on efforts to grow the region鈥檚 economy.
Now they need to figure out what, exactly, that means.
The newly formed St. 亚洲无码 Economic Development Partnership is launching a strategic planning study to help focus its efforts. It鈥檚 due in February, the one-year anniversary of on economic development.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a plan for how we maximize job growth,鈥 said Denny Coleman, chief executive of the Partnership. 鈥淭his is about planning, in a thoughtful way, how to compete.鈥
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Coleman made the announcement Tuesday at a lunch celebrating the new partnership. The event, held in lieu of the St. 亚洲无码 County Economic Council鈥檚 annual luncheon, took place at the Chase Park Plaza 鈥 symbolically halfway between downtown and Clayton 鈥 and included nearly 1,000 business and political leaders from both sides of Skinker Boulevard.
The tie-up of the two agencies 鈥 which basically entails moving 10 staffers from the city-run St. 亚洲无码 Development Corp. to the Partnership鈥檚 Clayton office to work on regional economic issues 鈥 sparked some political opposition in both city and county but has largely been .
Now, though, it鈥檚 time to nail down what the Partnership is trying to accomplish, said Jim Weddle, managing partner at Edward Jones.
鈥淚t starts with a vision. That vision needs to be aggressive. It needs to be achievable. It needs to be clear,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e also need to know what things we are not going to do.鈥
The Partnership has said it鈥檒l focus on things like regional marketing, entrepreneurship and overseas trade. It has hired Town and Country-based consulting firm Collaborative Strategies to lead the $88,000 planning effort that will fill in the details over the next few months.
A lot of people will be watching. The Partnership is the highest-profile tie-up to date between St. 亚洲无码 and St. 亚洲无码 County, which have been talking for several years about sharing more services. If it works, it could provide a road map for further collaboration, or even re-entry of the city into the county as a municipality. Talks about that idea have begun bubbling again in recent weeks.
But Tuesday, the conversation was focused on comparatively simple matters of economic development, and the two biggest governmental fish in the St. 亚洲无码 sea working together to grow more jobs in the region. And that partnership is a good thing, Weddle said.
鈥淐ollaboration is key,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e always going to be stronger together than we will be working apart.鈥