JREDC President Ellis, Jax Main Street’s Tighe talk Economic Development

By Gary Scott on May 8, 2017 at 1:06pm

Today marks the beginning of Economic Development Week in Morgan County.

When it comes to local economic development, who better to discuss the subject than President of the Jacksonville Regional Economic Development Corporation Paul Ellis, who joined WLDS’ AM Conversation this morning.

Judy Tighe, Executive Director of Jacksonville Main Street, an organization with serves as one of JREDC’s biggest allies, also joined the program to discuss some of the projects the two organizations have been working towards.

Ellis expands on the importance of Jacksonville’s recently-refurbished downtown, a transformation project that Jacksonville Main Street played a vital role in.

“Downtown is always the center of a community, and while we serve the whole region, Jacksonville is kind of the flagship for the area, and having Jacksonville Main Street be so strong, and have Judy (Tighe)’s leadership, it just can’t be replaced,” says Ellis.

With last week being Small Business Week, Tighe discusses some of relationships between local businesses, and explains that another small business event has been scheduled for tomorrow.

Being introduced at tomorrow’s event is a new program called “Digital Downtown,” developed by the Economic Restructuring Committee.

Ellis explains what this new “Digital Downtown” program is, and the various ways local residents can use it.

“We have a new web portal that allows you to look at everything in downtown Jacksonville and categorize by entertainment, by dining, by government services, whatever you might be interested, at any time you can pull it up and take a virtual tour and find great information about downtown Jacksonville,” Ellis explains.

Our full interview with Ellis and Tighe can be heard online at WLDS/WEAI.com. For even more on Economic Development week, stay tuned to WLDS as Ellis plans to join AM Conversation throughout the remainder of the week.