BN Advantage to visit Arkansas communities for inspiration

Posted on October 12, 2017

The 2016 ‘One Voice’ delegation is pictured above in Washington D.C. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Local economic developers hope to find inspiration from Arkansas as they look to grow the economy in McLean County.

About 20 members from the group BN Advantage will bus to Arkansas next week for a three-day visit to Little Rock and Conway, a college town comparable to Bloomington-Normal.

Spokesman for the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council, Zach Dietmeier, told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the mission is to see how those communities have grown and what they’ve done that might work here.

“We are just trying to get a feel for what worked, what didn’t work,” Dietmeier said. “We are gong to ask some of the tough questions to really drive our initiative in BN Advantage forward,”

Dietmeier said the trip was spearheaded by McLean County Chamber of Commerce President Charlie Moore.

One Voice

The EDC is also inviting anyone seeking to be included in a federal government funding request through the local One Voice effort to submit their proposal to the EDC by Nov. 29.

“We go to the (U.S.) Department of Education, Department of Transportation, whatever those projects are that come to us,” Dietmeier said.

Dietmeier said the group is looking for three or four projects to present in Washington D.C. next March that have an economic development impact in McLean County and must improve the quality of life here.

Information is available at www.bnbiz.org.

Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.

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