UCDD will be hosting a series of economic strategy meetings with each of the Upper Cumberland’s 14 counties in the coming weeks.
UCDD Executive Director Mark Farley said the meetings will be one-on-one with each county and its leadership to discuss the goals they have for the upcoming year. Farley said the meetings do not necessarily generate a new economic strategic plan but serve as more of a status report.
“It’s not so much our meeting as it is the community’s meeting, and our goal is to make sure that if there are any issues that are going on that all the various agencies that work in our region are at the table and we can talk through and make sure these problems are resolved and make sure we are all on the same page,” Farley said.
Farley said each county is different, as some counties in the Upper Cumberland are prospering and some are not. Farley said some counties in the Upper Cumberland are dealing with an issue of businesses trying to survive the current economic uncertainty.
Farley said the development district has held the meetings during the summer for the last ten years. Farley said having the meetings every year allows for counties in the Upper Cumberland to continue to grow and improve.
“We need to always be making progress,” Farley said. “What needs to be improved? What opportunities exist? And if we don’t address those on a yearly basis, unfortunately, we miss some of those opportunities, so we want to keep it at the forefront, and that’s why we feel like these are so valuable.”
Farley said some counties are seeing businesses coming in, while at the same time, some of the current businesses are struggling.
“Our goal is to make sure that those businesses that we have in place today, both the manufacturers and our service industries, our retail entities, we want them to be as strong as they possibly can be before we worry about bringing new employers to the table,” Farley said.
Farley said the UCDD will meet with half of the counties in June and then meet with the other half in August.
