Kootenai County Recruiters Courting ‘Soft’ Manufacturers
Economic recruiters and observers expect Kootenai County’s success at recruiting manufacturers to continue, but the profile of targeted companies may change.
If recent years are any indication, the future of Kootenai County’s job mix suggests continued growth in manufacturing, said Kathryn Tacke, labor analyst for the Idaho Department of Employment.
“We’ve continued to see large increase in manufacturing employment at a time when U.S. manufacturing is declining,” Tacke said. “We’re seeing more people adding value to products like wood and less involved in the forestry business itself, for example.”
Paul Sommers, executive director of the Northwest Policy Center and a former Coeur d’Alene resident, said the county needs to focus on advanced, technology-related manufacturers.
Sommers suggests that bringing more companies on the leading edge of technology will provide high-paying jobs of the future.
Alan Golub wants to do just that. He owns several hundred acres in Hayden, where he plans to move his small Southern California business, Electronic Packaging Associates.
Golub wants his New Frontiers Business Park to attract entrepreneurial businesses that deal with new technology. He wants to recruit businesses with new ideas in medical and environmental technology.
“If you’re working and just putting screws onto something, it provides employment, but we’re looking for something a little more than that,” Golub said from his Canoga Park office. “We want new ideas here, with the by-product being high-paying jobs. We want our children to be able to stay around here and have jobs.”
Golub says his vision for New Frontiers is long term, but its success requires making critical links with North Idaho College and the businesses that would locate in the park.
NIC and Golub have discussed the possibility of setting up a branch campus in the business park, giving students close access to real world business applications, he said.
Those links between industry and education are crucial to attracting leading-edge companies that can provide well-paying jobs well into the 21st Century, Sommers said. Spokane and the SIRTI project are a great example, he said.
“I don’t think you can really recruit these types of businesses,” Sommers said from Seattle. “You have to provide the right environment for them.”
Sommers said Kootenai County should look more toward education and other industry resources in Spokane to help create that environment for new high-tech businesses.
As for the future of business recruiting in Kootenai County, Bob Potter at Jobs Plus Inc. has his own set of concerns.
If the county doesn’t contain rising property taxes and address the lack of a countywide sewer system, he said, his job will become much more difficult. It’s already much tougher to bring new manufacturing businesses here than it was three years ago, he said.
Potter continues to broaden his scope of companies he targets beyond manufacturing.
He’ll shoot for more companies like Environment Control, which is locating its cleaning service franchise headquarters in Silver Lake Office Park. Potter wants more “soft” manufacturers to come here, ones needing less heavy equipment subject to property taxes, but that still provide good jobs for noncollege educated residents.