This month, Michael Bunt, Director of Economic Development for the Artesia, New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, shared with us why his team gives extra attention to several aspects of the community that are not traditional base economic employers.
Here in Artesia we spend a lot of time on housing, retail, and amenities and those types of things that aren’t your traditional base economic employers…and bring[ing] labor to town are very, very important whenever people are looking at where they want to live and where they want to raise family, and be a part of that community.
I think it’s really hard to overstate the importance of having those amenities in your town and making sure your town is as desirable as possible to any potential labor participants…[W]e want to make it as easy for people to move to town, to like the town, and to get involved in the town as we can, and we think that’s necessary, especially in a small town. For a tip, if you will, it is my contention that a lot of small town economic developer’s time would be really well spent working on the stuff that traditionally they don’t: the retail, the amenities, the housing, etc.
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