STELLAR Client NEWS!!!

Businesses raise more than $1 Million toward goal

By Nate Johnson Times News writer (Twin Falls Idaho)

BURLEY -- Business Plus III has received pledges for more than two-thirds of the money it needs for the next five years leaders, of the regional economic development group announced Wednesday evening.

The group has raised $1,004,500 in pledges from 23 businesses. That puts the organization well on its way to the $1.44 million its leaders have decided it will take to add 2,000 jobs in six Magic Valley counties in the next five years.

The money comes from business people from Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln,Minidoka and Twin Falls counties who committed to making a yearly donation because they believe their investment will increase the economic productivity in the area.

Some of the people working with Business Plus III were skeptical when (STELLAR Fundraising) Campaign Executive Scott Wilson told them he wanted to raise $1.44 million. Now the goal seems attainable, they said.

"When I first met Scott I thought, '$1.4 million? You haven't been to Idaho in a long time,'" said Jim Lynch, owner of Lynch Oil.

Most of the money, $1.15 million would go to attract and retain businesses, said Jeff Clark, president of Sun Valley Potatoes.

The organization would "sweeten the pot" for businesses that needed an incentive to move into the area, Wilson said. Business Plus III would give $250,000 to the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization to market the area to businesses, Clark said. The final $40,000 would cover operations, overhead and an investor-relations program.

While the creation of new jobs will create a more competitive labor market, it will help businesses in the long run, Lynch said. Lynch lost convenience-store clerks when Dell Computer Corp. moved to Twin Falls, but he is glad for his former employees' increased prosperity, he said.

"What kind of boss would I be if I didn't let them reach for the brass ring?" Lynch asked.

Some of the money these ex-employees make at Dell will come back to his gas stations, Lynch said.

"Every retail business should be investing in BP3 because they will receive the biggest benefit," said Jerome businessman Con Paulos. "We need to tell our friends and neighbors -- we need to tell everybody -- especially in Mini-Cassia."

Dell has bought 10 football-field-lengths of Subway sandwiches from Paulos' franchises since the computer company opened a technical support center in Twin Falls, he said.

After the meeting, Harry Badger of Kodiak Northwest, a Paul snowplow manufacturer, agreed. "It's gotta happen," Badger said.

Kodiak Northwest has benefited from area layoffs because the company has been able to hire some new workers, but this benefit is only temporary, he said. If the labor market is not competitive in a region, the best workers will move out of the area to better-paying jobs, Badger said.

The money donated to Business Plus III will help draw back the children who went college and left Idaho, Lynch said.

"I want my kids to come back and they have to have something to come back to," Lynch said. "If I'm not willing to invest in my community I might as well leave."

"There are not enough jobs to keep the young people in the area," he said. "Idaho has been shipping out our brain trust for many years," Paulos said.

New jobs will keep children at home, even if they say they want to get the heck of Idaho when they are in high school, Wilson said.

"You create the jobs, people come," he said.

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