More than 35 residents showed up to hear the Haines Economic Development Corp. present its 5-Year Economic Development plan at the Chilkat Center on Monday. The plan comes nearly a year after the Haines Assembly granted the nonprofit $95,000 from a one percent sales tax collection to strategize economic development; it is the second of two phases.

HEDC and the McDowell Group that conducted the phase one baseline study, sectioned the plan into four objectives with near term, short term, and long term actions.

Margaret Friedenauer, executive director of HEDC, said this plan will work as a blueprint to guide what the organization will do for the next five years. “We really wanted to define actionable items that we could accomplish, check off, and say ‘we tried them and here are the results.'”

Some highlights in the plan were initiatives borne from case studies that have proven success rates in other communities. Among them were proposals to begin a mentorship program to connect new business owners with seasoned business owners, support and create childcare services as a resource to working families, and develop winter recreation opportunities, something Friedenauer said came up a lot in public outreach.

An audience member asked what other initiatives are proposed for family retention. “I know people who have left because there wasn’t support in the community for families,” she said.

McDowell Group Principal Susan Bell said that addressing child care as a business opportunity as well as a gap for some families is a solution, “and recognizing that there was overwhelming support at 84 percent for more year-round jobs,” which could contribute to family retention.

The baseline report found a strength in Haines to be the increase of self-employment between 2012 and 2016 by ten percent. Adding momentum to that growth, one mid-term plan was to increase development of telecommunications and broadband industrial support services in Haines.

An audience member who works in the computer industry asked if airport development would be a component to location neutral businesses.

“With the younger folks, quick access in and out of wherever you live is important because they travel a lot. If it were more convenient via air travel to get here we might be able to attract more location neutral business people,” he said.

“All things transportation are on our list to look at,” Vice President of HEDC, Sean Gaffney, said.

Moving forward, Friedenauer said HEDC will be tackling near-term priorities first. “We’ve already partnered with the chamber on the buy local campaign to say why buying local is healthy for the economy, so that falls into objective one,” she said. Friedenauer added that they will approach some things as they come up. For example, there’s been “huge demand” for the midterm priority on objective one, to conduct an economic impact study for University of Alaska’s potential timber sale. While the objective was slotted to take place over the next 3-5 years, HEDC has already taken it on.

The group will hold their first public meeting on Oct. 19, to discuss the scoping document of the University of Alaska timber sale..

The five-year plan can be accessed on their website at https://www.hainesedc.org/projects/

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