Local citizens will hear updates on the status of Jacksonville’s economic outlook at tonight’s Morgan County League of Women Voters meeting.
The topic of the evening’s event will be “The Economic Development of the Entire Region,” with the guest speaker being Paul Ellis, President of the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corporation.
Ellis, who was named President of the JREDC in August of 2016, will discuss his organization’s upcoming plans.
“(I’m) going to update the League of Women Voters as to what the JREDC is doing. I’ve been here about six months, getting to know the community, understanding the businesses and seeing the potential here. We’ll have our annual meeting the following night for the organization. We’ve got a lot of things going on. We’ve got a strategic plan that’s starting and we’ll give them an update on what we do and how we do it,” says Ellis
He explains that there are several facets and goals the JREDC has for the region.
“There’s three things we do for the business community that I think are most important. Those are business attraction, business creation, which is helping entrepreneurs and start-ups, and then business retention and expansion,” Ellis says
Ellis says two other areas that he’ll be focusing on are local entrepreneurial opportunities and workforce development.
“We are working with some entrepreneurs and I’m looking for more, so if there are folks out there that have businesses that they’re trying to get off the ground, we would be happy to talk with them. Then the other thing that we’re doing that’s top of the line for everybody this year is workforce development. We’re looking at how we can help companies to recruit more employees, to have a better mix of employees, and that they have the right person for the right job,” explains Ellis.
Tonight’s meeting is open to the public and begins at 7 p.m. in the Lower Level Meeting Room at the Jacksonville Public Library.