Levinson, ACIA hosts county meeting about economic strategy
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3
COUNTY, from Page 1
asked questions and offered ideas
they had on how to diversify the
economy, create solid paying jobs
and attract new residents, visitors
and businesses to the county. angeloueconomics is a nationally
recognized consulting firm out of
austin, texas that was hired by the
county to lead this mission.
Levinson opened the public
forum by explaining what the
county, in conjunction with the atlantic County improvement authority (aCia), wanted to
accomplish by having a two-hour
session for county residents.
“this is going to be an initiative
that the county put together, and
we are of the belief that we need
input. We need input from the public. right now, [we] have about
1,000 interested parties, whether
they are online or have come to our
forums that have given their input
on the direction of the county. Up
until now, it has been all atlantic
City and that is the unfortunate part
of it. When things were going well,
everybody did well….the problem
is [in the county] we don’t have diversification that people have been
saying years and years about our
area,” Levinson said.
Stressing diversification, Levinson said the concept will help
overcome the economic woes in
the county, believing there are
enough resources to take on such
a task.
“We have such a great base for
it [in the county], whether it would
be educational or medical, we
have so many things. We have aviation, a premier facility in the
country at the Faa. these are the
things we want to capitalize on …
this is going to be countywide,
and we are going to have diversification. it has to come from the
ground up. that is why all of you
are here and we want to listen to
your input,” Levinson said.
angelou said he has consulted
with hundreds of states and cities
around the country regarding economic development strategies. the
residents and leaders of the county
will need to work on implementing this strategy once it has been
put in place by the end of July, ac-
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cording to angelou.
“We have to make sure we keep
moving the economy forward.
three months ago we were contacted to devise an economic development action plan for atlantic
County, not just atlantic City. We
wanted to open it up to the public,
to hear your concerns, to hear your
ideas and what you want to build
and want it to become. at the end
of the day, economic development
is local,” angelou said.
there were 18 members of the
public that asked questions and
brought forth ideas in regards to
the county economic development
strategy plan. aCia Commissioner
and Hammonton resident Joseph
ingemi offered a suggestion on diversification during the public
forum, focusing on each municipality’s strengths. He provided remarks
about
Hammonton’s
agricultural presence and taking
advantage of that in other ways.
“Obviously Hammonton is an
agricultural hub, and i hope that
will make it on the final plan as
well. But unfortunately, and this is
something for us to discuss as a
community, is when we get into
agriculture all we think of is farmers, people that actually own farms
and seasonal workers that work on
the farms. But farming can be so
much more, and can really expand
the supply chains and even angelos [angelou] said the leverage as-
sets are already there …. We can
leverage and expand with the
wineries. it is also a matter of expanding the supply chains. People
in the audience here, i notice, work
on those supply chains, transportation, food processing. that is
where we have to think creatively
to create those high-paying jobs.
Food processing plants will bring
in engineers to work their controls
… there are also things we have to
do on the community level, work
tax abatements, work with schools
to ensure that the course curriculums are built towards that biotechnology and agriculture-enhancing
life sciences. that is how i feel
Hammonton can contribute to this
fight in building the economy,” ingemi said.
angela Donio of Hammonton
provided input on county economic development, stating that
tourism remains a positive thing in
this mission to enhance business.
“We are trying to work here in
Hammonton with agritourism and
also the wineries and that should
spread and come from there [atlantic City area] with bus trips. it
could if they weren’t so focused inward with the casinos. it is a shame
that the NextGen thing didn’t work
because that is a lot of wasted time
because people were expecting
something to happen, and then
there was a debacle there … i am
See ECONOMY, Page 16
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