Oregon: Where are we gonna work when the trees are gone?

Log trucks that once rolled through town at the rate of one a minute
all but disappeared, and half of downtown’s storefronts went empty.
Now, as the economy takes another plunge, this town of 2,900 seems
better positioned to weather the decline, in part because of a series
of public-private partnerships on land set aside for light industry.
Obstacles to further expansion remain, such as a lack of readily
trained local workers and the 20-minute drive time from Interstate
205.

But economic development experts say Estacada’s evolution from
timber capital to fledgling manufacturing haven offers lessons for
towns struggling to retain and create jobs of their own. The Estacada
Industrial Park, which began a decade ago with one ministorage unit
and a lone employee, now hosts six businesses and more than 100
workers. The cluster of machine shops, metal fabricators and
electrical distributors turns out specialized parts for clients here
and around the nation. Fittingly, the industrial park was the
brainchild of a prominent area timber executive, Mike Park, CEO of
Park Forest Products. “The real key to their success has been in
forming creative partnerships to seek out investments and make those
dollars go further than they would otherwise,” said Carolyn Meece,
business development officer for the Oregon Economic & Community
Development Department. “Estacada is exactly the kind of example
others can look to.” Local business owners and government officials,
for instance, worked with county and state groups this year to gain an
enterprise zone overlay for the industrial park. Two companies already
have qualified for the program’s significant tax abatements. And a
recent summit attended by representatives of a variety of agencies and
groups produced a grant request for $42,500 in work force training
money for industrial park businesses. A decision on the request is
expected soon. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/reinventing_estacada_from_timb.html

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