“We know what our issues are, we know what the challenges are,” Steve Costello, a vice president at Green Mountain Power, told Michael Schirling, the new secretary of the state Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
Costello, highlighting a local effort underway for a Rutland region marketing campaign, said now is time for the action, not more state studies.
“I think that people see the need,” Costello said of the marketing effort, “they understand the value of it and that we can’t keep waiting for something to happen for Vermont to turn the corner.”
Schirling, who took over as commerce secretary in January when Republican Gov. Phil Scott was inaugurated, said he heard Costello’s message.
“Our mantra to the Legislature this year is, no more studies and reports,” Schirling said. “We don’t need any more studies or reports to tell us where we need to go. We know where we need to go, we have to make investments on where we need to go.”
Schirling and Joan Goldstein, state commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, traveled Friday to Rutland to take part in a daylong series of discussions and business tours hosted by the Rutland Economic Development Corporation.
They started the day with a roundtable forum in downtown Rutland with municipal, business and education leaders from the Rutland region. Schirling told the group he is taken aback by how many studies have been conducted over the past three years.
Goldstein agreed.
“We need help in reinforcing that it makes sense that we don’t need to do more studies,” she said. “Just as an example, the most recent version of the economic development bill has four studies that this agency is supposed to do. It’s unbearable.”
Rutland leaders said they have acted on their own to jumpstart the local economy. The Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce and the Rutland Economic Development Corporation raised more than $200,000from local businesses to launch a marketing campaign for the city of Rutland and surrounding towns.
“What we did do locally was literally pass the hat for the campaign,” Costello said. “We raised $100,000 in 10 days from local businesses.” The initiative’s aim is to promote tourism and highlight the region’s economic opportunities.
Lyle Jepson, REDC’s executive director and also the dean of entrepreneurial programs at Castleton University, said trying to recruit major out of state employers to the region may not be time well spent, at least right now.
“We’re all about hitting singles and not necessarily hitting home runs right off the bat,” Jepson said. “The singles are going to score runs. We’re looking for businesses that will grow, and we’re focusing on businesses that will grow.”
“It’s about mindful, smart growth,” Schirling added, “but we can’t continue to have the handbrake on. It’s not sustainable.”
Later in the day, Schirling and Goldstein visited Ann Clark, Ltd., America’s Largest Cookie Cutter Company, in Rutland Town.
Ann Clark, Ltd., started in 1989 as a small gift company and grew into the largest manufacturer of cookie cutters in the United States. Clark showed off the 16,300-square-foot facility where millions of cookie cutters in hundreds of designs, from trees to turtles, are made each year.
CEO Ben Clark walked Schirling and Goldstein through the process of turning rolls of metal into moose-shaped cookie cutters ready to be shipped out to anywhere in the world.
Clark said one the greatest strengths of his business is what many companies are lacking.
“The biggest fault I see in companies is marketing,” he said. “Yes, we make a great cookie cutter, yes we have great people, yes we do a lot of great things, but fundamentally, we’re out-marketing our competitors.”
Schirling said the company’s success needs to be highlighted by the state.
“We need to let young people know of the opportunities available in Vermont to start and grow a business,” he said
“If the Legislature gives us the money,” Schirling added, “one the things that we’re going to engage in is a marketing campaign for Vermont that’s different than any that’s ever been done before, illuminating these kind of things.”
He also asked Clark if he could take a few of the products back with him to his office in Montpelier, saying he wanted to show people that he visited the largest manufacturer of cookie cutters in the country, right in Rutland, Vermont
“They’re not going to believe us,” Schirling said.
Clark then handed him a box full of cutters for proof.
