Politics & Government

Patch Election Q&A: Stan Bond on Question #2

Stan Bond's answer to our second question.

The question:

What are your specific ideas to make the village more business-friendly? How can Montgomery attract more businesses, and keep the ones that are here? What types of businesses would you like to see come to the village?

Stan's answer:

First, most of our remaining unrealized development plans were conceived in a robust and growing economy. I would recommend revisiting those plans and the requirements they make of developers with an eye to the reality of today's business climate and with more citizen input.

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Second, recent ordinances related to commercial landscaping and commercial signage have made a negative impact on many local businesses and the enforcement of them has created hard feelings. I am also informed that these ordinances could be attributed to situations where prospective businesses chose to walk away from discussions about locating in Montgomery. To be business friendly, we actually have to be business friendly. It's more than a catch phrase. I don't think we solicited sufficient, or perhaps even any business input as these ordinances were being developed by the Plan Commission and ultimately adopted by the Village Board. Actions like this are directly related to keeping businesses here.

Several business owners have told me personally that if they were making the decision again, they would not have located their business in Montgomery. If we don't figure out what we're doing wrong to create those kinds of attitudes, we will see a steady decline in local business activity. And the taxpayers will suffer. This can and must be fixed.

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Nearly five years ago I founded a website designed to help bring our community together and to make it easier for local businesses of all kinds to make themselves known to the public. The website is www.montgomerymatters.com—please visit it and if you have a business, feel free to create a free business profile. The website was created and is maintained at my expense.

I think we should set some very specific goals for what kind of businesses we seek. Companies that employ 50 or more people would be a good start. Companies that employ skilled workers, such as health care and assisted living would be excellent.
If you look at some business sectors where we are currently strong, such as delivery logistics, equipment manufacturing and industrial supply, a good strategy would be to seek businesses that support or have synergy with that type of business and labor pool. The development market is too competitive now for us to just seek some mythical new business; we're more likely to have success if we focus our energies on exactly what kind of business would find our situation to be a special advantage.

I think we would also be wise to build relationships with the larger companies in our area and ask "What kinds of services or products do you routinely buy that you wish were available locally?" Then we have a win-win. A benefit for our existing business, and a strong appeal for the location of a new business.

I believe our current focus may be tilted too much toward the retail side. We need a balanced approach. Retail sales only happen when people have money to spend. The money people have to spend comes from jobs. The presence of local jobs also affects property values.


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