Momentum Passes Torch Agency Turns Mission Over To Focus 21

The chalked hands held steady and the tight, white pants didn’t rip as Olympic gymnast and inspirational speaker Peter Vidmar twirled atop a pommel horse like an airplane propeller.

With a surge of his muscular arms, the small, blond athlete flipped off the horse in a clean dismount Tuesday under the spotlight at the Spokane Arena.

It was a perfect 10, a symbol of the age - and possibly the effectiveness - of the economic development organization that hired Vidmar for its final annual meeting.

Momentum ‘97 capped a decade of achievements with Vidmar’s call before 300 people to dare to take new risks, to try something no one has attempted and to do it better than anyone else.

“How we feel is irrelevant,” said Vidmar, whose gold medal at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles was overshawdowed when 16-year-old Mary Lou Retton won four medals and America’s admiration. Vidmar noted he’s “nine inches taller” than Retton.

“We’ve got to get excited about what we’re doing, even if it’s the last customer at the end of the day,” Vidmar told the crowd.

His message provided inspiration for sponsors of Focus 21. The group was recently created to continue the economic development efforts begun by Momentum, a 550-member organization that spent $1 million a year in the community.

Since its founding in 1986, said Momentum President Gordon Budke, the organization has helped lure 82 companies to Spokane, creating 8,600 jobs and a $225 million payroll.

“Momentum has changed the landscape of Spokane,” he said. “Together we made it happen.”

Budke cited strong evidence that Momentum had a key role in fueling Spokane’s economic revival and improving the business landscape and quality of life.

From 1986 through 1996, Momentum figures showed, Spokane County unemployment dropped from 8.2 percent to 5.3 percent. The number of working people rose 37 percent, from 137,800 to 188,700, and the average annual wage increased from $17,011 to $24,563.

Momentum officials disbanded Tuesday by electing a four-person interim board of directors to Focus 21: Stacey Cowles, publisher of The Spokesman-Review; Chris Schnug, partner at McFarland & Alton; Steve Matsko, regional vice president of U.S. Bank of Washington; and Budke.

Momentum was launched by a small group of business leaders, including co-chairmen David Clack, an investor and former bank chairman; Paul Redmond, chairman of Washington Water Power Co.; the late William H. Cowles, 3rd, former publisher of The Spokesman-Review and the father of Stacey Cowles; and Lewis Zirkle, former chairman of Key Tronic Corp.

Their objective: revive the feeble Spokane economy, shore up the declining natural resource industries and reverse an exodus of talented people who couldn’t find good jobs.

Investors committed $5.8 million to a five-year plan to to invest in key agencies, such as the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, to lobby lawmakers for a pro-business government and to underwrite community programs that would create jobs, increase personal income and retain the region’s quality of life.

Early successes included recruiting Seafirst Bank’s processing center and the Boeing Co. plant.

By 1990, retail and home sales soared and Spokane’s growth was heralded nationwide.

Momentum investors in 1991 pledged another $5.5 million to fund a second five-year phase.

By 1995, as the community began to apply the breaks on growth, Momentum began to consider new strategies for targeting higher-paying jobs.

Momentum leaders last year developed the New Century Plan to map out strategies for perpetuating growth without Momentum. The result was Focus 21, which has already raised $3.1 million.

“Momentum is not the end, but a beginning,” Budke said in reference to Focus 21. “Passing the torch does not mean sitting out the next round.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo