Date: Fri 18-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

HVEDP-Peg-Daley-business

Full Text:

w/photo: Development Director Helps Lure Businesses To The Region

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

When Margaret Daley of Newtown became the first director of the Housatonic

Valley Economic Development Partnership (HVEDP) three years ago, she faced a

daunting task.

Years of increasing costs and high taxes had driven many businesses from

Connecticut, lured by states with lower costs of living and more favorable

business climates. The New England region, and particularly Connecticut, had

been hard hit by the recession of the early '90s.

Under former Gov Lowell Weicker, the state created regions to take over

responsibility for local economic development. In northern Fairfield and

southern Litchfield counties, the ten towns that made up the Housatonic Valley

region wanted to continue to build a strong, diversified economic base, while

at the same time preserving the area's natural beauty and predominately

rural/suburban lifestyle.

"HVEDP was created through an act of the legislature in May 1992 to oversee

the development and implementation of a strategic economic development plan

for the region," Mrs Daley said. "The partnership is composed of a 23-member

board of directors representing the business, non-profit and governmental

sectors of the region."

After two years and the development of the strategic economic plan by a

consultant from Massachusetts, the partnership looked for a director to help

guide its implementation. They hired Peg Daley, a municipal economic

development director, college lecturer, former chairman of Newtown's

Legislative Council and mother of nine children.

Mrs Daley, who lives with her husband, Bob, a retired IBM executive, on Bridge

End Farm Lane in Sandy Hook, is modest about her accomplishments.

"I was actually quite surprised when HVEDP hired me," she said. "I really

never seriously thought I was in the running."

But since she became HVEDP's first director in June 1994, she has coordinated

the implementation of the strategic plan and helped to create tools like the

Business Resource Directory for the Housatonic Region which was unveiled at a

news conference in Danbury this week.

"The directory was a joint project by HVEDP and the (Danbury) Mayor's Task

Force for Community Reinvestment," Mrs Daley said. "It's a major project that

we've been working on for quite a while."

The directory is a compilation of information aimed at helping people who want

to establish a new business in the Housatonic Valley region. It begins by

explaining where and how to register a new business and secure required

permits and licenses, lists local resources such as chambers of commerce,

explains how to develop a business plan, discusses the various types of

businesses - such as sole proprietorships, corporations and limited liability

companies - provides sources for business financing, lists of records which

must be kept, insurance, demographic information, utility and transportation

contacts, import/export information, business location resources, business

education/training sources, agricultural business assistance resources, and

other information.

An appendix includes frequently called business resource phone numbers, a

sample business plan, venture capital sources, minority business assistance

programs, franchising information, language translation resources, and other

information.

"I'm very proud of the directory," Mrs Daley said. "It's going to be given to

chambers of commerce, economic development committees, all agencies that

assist small business, business attorneys - anyone working with small

businesses. Libraries will get two copies - one to keep in the reference

department and one to loan out."

Much of the focus of Mrs Daley's efforts is designed to eliminate duplication

between agencies and share results of their work.

"HVEDP has five committees which work on such goals as assisting new

enterprises and small businesses, strengthening existing business, education

and training, marketing and targeting industrial clusters, and infrastructure

expansion," she said. "Two of these committees - new businesses/enterprise and

strengthening existing businesses - came up with the idea for this directory

to tell people where to go for help. Then we learned that the mayor's task

force also came up with the same idea.

"Why should two organizations do the same thing? We merged our efforts and I

did the work of assembling the information."

The directory will be updated twice a year in its hard copy format and weekly

on the Internet, she said.

HVCEO Mapping System

HVEDP shares office space and resources with HVCEO (the Housatonic Valley

Council of Elected Officials) and HRRA (the Housatonic Resources Recovery

Administration), a partnership formed to dispose of solid waste and coordinate

recycling efforts in the region, in the old town hall on Route 25 in

Brookfield.

"HVCEO and Jonathan Chew (the agency's executive director) have created a base

map of the 10-member towns with overlays that show the resources in the

region," Mrs Daley said. "HVEDP paid to have overlays done which show economic

development information, all in the same scale. The maps show such things as

zoning, sewers, water mains, gas lines, rail lines, topography, plus there's

aerial photography of the region. The information is available on actual maps

and also on the computer."

Mrs Daley said the Housatonic Valley Tourism District is forming a partnership

with HVEDP to add tourism sites to this Geographic Information System (GIS).

The Housatonic Area Regional Transit District will add the HART bus routes to

the system, too.

"Everyone is buying into it," Mrs Daley said. "The towns and agencies realize

that if we're going to do this, it should all be in the same format to be

compatible - and cheaper in the long run."

Marketing Efforts

To reach businesses which may consider moving to the Housatonic Valley region,

HVEDP created an information packet that includes brochures which discuss the

region's labor market, transportation system, business resources, recreation

and culture, education and community living in the 10 towns that make up the

region: Danbury, Newtown, Bethel, Brookfield, Redding, Ridgefield, New

Fairfield, Bridgewater, New Milford and Sherman.

Information contained in the folder also is available at HVEDP's website:

www.wcsu.ctstateu.eduÃhvedp.

"The Internet project is a joint effort between the partnership, Western

Connecticut State University, and the Housatonic Resources Recovery

Administration," Mrs Daley said. "Interns (at WestConn) set it up. The next

step is to get links so that we can update it from here.

The agencies have put together the Housatonic Valley economic development

reception teams - representatives of HVEDP, Connecticut Light & Power,

Southern New England Telephone, the Danbury Industrial Corporation and

commercial-industrial division of the Board of Realtors, to make presentations

to prospects who are considering relocating to this region.

"This is a team of people that can answer questions without being identified

with a specific town," Mrs Daley said.

"The most important thing economic development planning can do is to provide

complete and accurate information quickly," she said. "If a business is

attracted to an area because of hype, but the resources aren't there, there

will be problems later."

Future of HVEDP

The spirit of cooperation between the towns and the agencies reflects the

knowledge that the Housatonic Valley region must act in unison if it wants to

win out over other regions which are competing for new businesses, she said.

While the state of Connecticut, Connecticut Light & Power, the Danbury

Industrial Corporation and the Danbury Chamber of Commerce spearheaded the

region's economic development efforts in the 1960s and 1970s, the past decade

has seen most of these efforts become focused through HVCEO and HVEDP.

Newtown is well-represented through these agencies, Mrs Daley said.

Newtown First Selectman Bob Cascella is chairman of HVCEO and co-chairman

(with Clarice Osiecki of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce) of HVEDP.

Newtown resident Charles Wrinn of the Danbury Industrial Corporation is

treasurer of HVCEO. Among the other HVCEO members from Newtown is Evelyn

Evegash, who represents the town's Economic Development Commission.

Although state funding for HVEDP officially ended with the 1996-97 fiscal

year, the agency will be able to continue its work through funding from HVCEO,

the tourism district, grants for specific projects and donations from

businesses, realtors, banks and others, Mrs Daley said.

"We need at least $110,000 a year (to operate) and have a goal of $150,000 to

$200,000 to cover all that we want to do. HVEDP has a funding committee and

we're getting close to our goal," she said.