20070112 Commissioner Minnich’s State of the County Address

20070112 Commissioner Minnich’s State of the County Address

Commissioner Dean L. Minnich’s remarks

at the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Commissioner’s

For more information, please see the Carroll County Times, Baltimore Sun and Baltimore Examiner’s coverage.

Kelsey Volkmann of The Examiner wrote “Water, economic growth, highways subjects of state of county address” on Jan 12, 2007. Read it here.

Baltimore Sun reporter Laura McCandlish wrote “Commissioners raise water, traffic concerns” on January 14^th, 2007. Read it here.

Marjorie Censer of the Carroll County Times wrote an article which was published on Friday, January 12, 2007, “Commissioner talks water during address.”

Water shortages in Carroll pose a challenge to the county’s growth, but planned reservoirs could alleviate the problem, Commissioner Julia Walsh Gouge said at the annual state of county luncheon Thursday.

The county’s additional residents mean it needs more water than it did in the past, and Maryland Department of the Environment regulations have limited the county’s allocations from wells, she said.

[…]

At the luncheon, organized by the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and held at Martin’s Westminster, Gouge warned that completion of the reservoirs could still be at least a decade away. Water shortages might make it more difficult to develop the county as planned, both she and Commissioner Dean Minnich said.

Gouge said the limitations on municipal water supplies could push development into farmland, while Minnich focused on their potential to affect the county’s economic development.

Read the rest of her article here.

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Commissioner Dean L. Minnich’s remarks

at the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Commissioner’s

State of the County presentation luncheon

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

Martin’s Westminster

611 words

State of the county – 2007

Carroll County’s partners in economic development efforts are the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, and the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore. We have also added emphasis over the past few years to our commitment to working with the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and other business associations in the county.

First among our priorities is to help local, existing businesses to prosper and grow. Then we work on recruiting new industry to add to the industrial tax base.

Part of that commitment shows in the development of a new “priority permitting” system to designate significant economic development projects and streamline site review processes.

Also, we developed “Enterprise Carroll,” offering grants for existing businesses in key industries. It invests in new concepts to help companies grow from concept to reality, upgrade technology, pay for research.

We make available Inc. Link, a customized software tool to help firms keep up with issues on training and workforce development, among other things.

We consolidated Four Partners with One Purpose as a small business training and resource center. EDC underwrites the cost of training at CCC in cooperation with Md. Small Business Development Center and Start-up Carroll.

Business and Employment Resource Center provides workforce development services to local business.

The expanding local economy in 2006 grew by $2 million, 2 hundred 10 thousand, 792 dollars, or 15 percent, the largest commercial/industrial base growth in the region. Nearly a million square feet of space was built or renovated, and Carroll County gained 2,533 jobs in 2005.

Spec building shows a healthy trend. More than 60,000 feet of new flex space has been constructed at the Air Business Center, and land is being graded along the Md. 97 Technology Corridor for additional buildings. The Westminster Technology Park is ready to market and several developers have expressed interest.

We’ve worked with General Dynamics and Flowserve as they have expanded, and welcomed new companies like HR Nicholson and Kellogg Snacks Jacketing. Warfield stands to provide space for the expansions and relocations of firms that will be looking for technology-based workforces.

In our publication, Carroll County Profile, stats from the Md. Dept of labor, licensing and regulation for 2005 show a total labor force of 90,928 – smallest labor force in the region, but also with an unemployment rate of only 2.6 percent, among the lowest in the state.

We are, of course, a county of commuters; in the 2000 census, 55.1 % of our workers commuted outside the county.

We’re working to reduce that percentage. There is some irony in the fact that many of our residents who must bear most of the tax burden for services have created the need for those services by moving here in search of less density, less industrial congestion, and less vehicular traffic. That same industrial congestion that contributed to the density and vehicular congestion helped pay the bills where they were.

The largest employer in the county is the public school system, with 3,342 people. Carroll Hospital Center is the largest private sector employer, with 1,438. Springfield Hospital Center, often overlooked as an economic entity, has 833 workers, and Random House, 830. County government, excluding the Sheriff’s department and the courts system, has 650 employees.

Others with more than 300 employees include McDaniel College, Fairhaven, Joseph A. Bank Clothiers, Northrup Grumman, English American Tailoring, EVAPCO, General Dynamics Robotic Systems, Inc., and Carroll Lutheran Village.

The department of economic development is actively engaged in the comprehensive plan update with the department of planning. We have selected Parsons Brickerhoff as a consultant to analyze our industrially and commercially zoned lands and recommend changes in infrastructure and funding strategies that will help us lay the footprint that today’s prospects require.

In short, we have broadened the scope of participation and cooperation, inside the county government, between governments and private sectors, and sharpened our focus on specifics in developing a strategy to make the most of the best resources we have – a high-quality pool of potential employees.

We have made incremental progress, we continue to strive for consistency, balance and preservation of the quality of life that our residents seek.

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