Fremont County Economic Development Strategy
Community Potential Workshop Summary
Process: Fremont County held three workshops on “Understanding Your Community’s Economic Potential” on the evenings of January 23, 24, and 25 in Ashton, Island Park, and St Anthony. Fifty-two people participated in the workshops, in addition to workshop leader, Dr. Dick Gardner. The workshops were the second series of activities designed to help the people of Fremont County learn about economic development and begin to develop a county strategy.
Objectives:
1. Help participants understand how their communities have changed over time as part of national shifts
2. Expand the set of economic diversification alternatives that participants see available to small towns
3. Engage participants in a conversation that uses comparative advantage to identify which diversification alternatives best match their communities
4. Build consensus about where the potential of our communities lays
5. Help participants connect community actions and improvements to realizing their economic potential under selected diversification strategies
Workshop Participants:
NAME & AGENCY / ORGANIZATION / COMMUNITYAshton meeting
1. Adrienne Keller, / USFS / Ashton
2. Darby Cikaitoga, / City of Ashton / Ashton
3. John Harrington, / Fremont Growth Solutions / Ashton
4. Linda Janssen, / City of Ashton / Ashton
5. Teddy Stronks, / City of Ashton / Ashton
6. Susan Baker / FEAC / Ashton
7. Mona Rae Amen / Ashton
8. Nancy Stratford
9. Ray Stratford / Island Park
Island Park
10. Cathy Stegelmeier / Ashton
11. Steve Pinther / Ashton
12. Matt Lucia / Driggs
13. John Kemp / Driggs
14. Chan Atchley
15. Judy Atchley
16. Cathy Koon
17. Lisa Benson / Fremont Cty. Economic Dev.
Fremont Cty Economic Dev / Ashton
Ashton
St. Anthony
St. Anthony
Island Park Meeting
1. Bill Davis / US Forest Service / Ashton
2. Gene Kantack / Idaho Falls
3. Judy Nuebel
4. Jon Nuebel / Island Park
Island Park
5. Willie Glans
6. Marilyn Glans / Island Park
Island Park
7. Ron Kynaston
8. Shirlene Kynaston / Island Park
Island Park
9. John Harrington
10. Nina Harrington / Fremont Growth Solutions / Ashton
Ashton
11. Paul Romrell
12. Ellen Romrell / Fremont County Commission
Citizen / St Anthony
St. Anthony
13. Lori Augustine / Island Park
14. Sherri Dinh / Fremont Growth Solutions / Ashton
15. Keith Hobbs, / Harriman SP / Island Park
16. Kyle Babbitt / Island Park Gem Community Team / Island Park
17. Jeff Patlovich / Fremont County Planning / St Anthony
18. Tom Baker / Mack’s Inn
19. Dan Gumbach
20. Cathy Koon / Fremont Cty. Economic Dev. / Island Park
St. Anthony
St Anthony Meeting
1. Abbie Mace / Fremont County Clerk / St Anthony
2. Sherri Thomas / St. Anthony Chamber of Commerce / PO Box 228 Parker, ID 83438
3. Adrienne Keller / Targhee National Forest / Ashton
4. Jerry McCoy
5. Pat McCoy / St Anthony
St. Anthony
6. Dirk Mace / Citizen / St Anthony
7. Todd Hatch / Idaho Falls
8. Dave Harvey / Idaho Falls
9. Joshua Chase / Fremont County Planning / St Anthony
10. Steve Smart / High Country RC&D / Rexburg
11. Brian Buch / USDA Rural Development / Blackfoot
12. Don Trupp / Fremont County Commission
13. Paul Romrell / Fremont County Commission / St Anthony
14. David Loomis
15. Cathy Koon / Fremont Cty. Economic Dev. / St. Anthony
Engines of Growth: Dr. Gardner began by describing the many economic reasons that communities have for springing into being. He described economic base theory and the way that one or more economic endeavors that generate new income normally underlie a community’s economy. With time, population change, and technological change, the engines of growth for a particular community are likely to change. Sometimes that is a natural process, but occasionally it is a wrenching change and challenge, such as when a large sawmill, mine, or factory closes. Some towns lose their engines of growth. They dwindle into what Gardner called a “Remnant Community.” Without proactive action by community residents, “remnant communities’ may become ghost towns. He asked the participants to work in small groups to identify the Engines of Growth that had driven the economies of each community in the county over time. Here is what they found:
Ashton
Ø Agricultural development
Ø Ranching
Ø Railroad – end of line, tourist supply point
Ø Seed potato capital
Ø Logging
Ø Tourism & recreation – Sled dog race, emerging with American Orient Express
Ø Bedroom community – emerging to Rexburg
Island Park
Ø Fur Trapping
Ø Stage lines to Yellowstone Park
Ø Sheep & cattle ranching
Ø Logging
Ø Railroad
Ø Tourism & recreation – First as a series of membership clubs (Mack’s Inn, Flat Rock Club, North Fork Club, Big Springs), but now as an emerging destination
Ø Real estate development & Construction – This is by definition a non-sustainable enterprise.
Ø Part-year residents, retirees, and vacation home rentals – This is what the building boom will produce.
West Yellowstone
Ø Railroad – completion brought town into prominence, prior to that visitors mostly stayed within the Park
Ø Tourism
Ø Logging – much less than within Idaho due to supply
St. Anthony
Ø Fur Trapping
Ø Ferry, with store & post office
Ø Agriculture & irrigation development water rights dating back to 1882
Ø Railroad
Ø Logging
Ø Gambling – legal ‘til the 1930s, with drinking establishments during Prohibition
Ø Corrections
Ø Tourism – especially at St Anthony Sand Dunes, but also pass-through to Yellowstone
Ø Bedroom community - emerging
Ø Manufacturing - emerging at the business park
Parker
Ø Agricultural development
Ø Railroad brought storage facilities for potatoes and sugar beets
Ø Manufacturing - Fertilizer plant
Ø Route to Island park
Ø Route to St Anthony Sand Dunes emerging
Newdale
Ø Agricultural development – water rights dating back to 1900
Ø Railroad – grain shipping, the Teton Dam flood of 1977 cut off the line up to St. Anthony
Ø Bedroom community – to Rexburg and now even Jackson, Wy
Teton
Ø Agricultural development
Ø Grist mill
Ø Bedroom community – to Rexburg
Community Potential Matrix – The group was next led through an interactive exercise of learning about 21 ways to add new jobs within a local community and ranking their own and neighboring communities on each of these potentials. Participants first ranked the towns individually, then as small groups. Those rankings and an average are shown in the three workshop pages below. Where possible participants were then shown scores done by outside experts in 2000. The last page is a summary of all the Fremont county community average scores, with rankings by the experts and by neighboring communities for reference. These scores will be examined in the next round of workshops. Discussion will hopefully lead to consensus scores and decisions about which strategies to pursue.