Press Release
Each year, the Castle Country Business Expansion and Retention group works with local individuals and businesses to expand the economic base of the Emery-Carbon county area. This past year has been no different.
“We work hard to help businesses to achieve more in the Castle Country area,” said BEAR Board Chair Karl Kraync. “There are a lot things we can do from helping businesses to get to the right people for grants to working with other possible financial partners. We also run programs to help businesses in the area in other ways.”
One of the things BEAR does well in the Castle Country area is keeping in contact with businesses. With a very small staff, the group was able to make 800 direct business contacts this past year. During those visits, BEAR staff learns of the needs and concerns of the local businesses, many of them one person operations that are run out of homes in the area. The information that is garnered is fed into a data base that keeps track of a myriad of different things, including whether a businesses asks for financial help (supportive or in grant/loan funding), training help/opportunities and technical support for their operations. Those kinds of requests are sent out as referrals to various agencies such as the counties’ economic development directors for the particular county the business is located in, to the Small Business Development Center and others. Then, someone from those agencies contact the business to see what kind of help they can give to the operation.
In the past year, BEAR has also worked as a support in various kinds of partnerships as well. In cooperation with Pro-Carbon, a referral concerning the new Wellington Micro-Tech business that is planning on opening up, ended up with some funding going to the company. BEAR also provided some technical support for Intermark Steel, which also was able to work on funding with Pro-Carbon as well.
Bear also teamed up with others to bring Positive Pathways, a psychiatric treatment center in Price, to town. In addition, Tom Lund, who has opened a new business incubator in Helper and is also almost ready to start construction on a new RV park in the town as well, has benefited from BEAR’s advise and help. BEAR has also helped Marty Robbins, who recently purchased the old Aaron’s building in Price to work toward opening multiple businesses in the area.
This past year, BEAR has been able to identify and help economic developers in both counties to aide businesses in securing Fast Track grants from the State of Utah to the tune of $250,000. Fast Track grants are a brick and mortar program that grants certain kinds of businesses money for either upgrading equipment or buildings for business expansion.
“With those local grants, we see a great return when this money is applied to these businesses,” said Mike McCandless, who sits on the board that awards FT grants across the state. “The return rate on the money the state awards is always three to four times what is invested.”
BEAR also works on new ways to bring business to the area as well. This past year, the group has been working on a program called Demographic Recruitment.
“While getting large outside business relocation to the area is a great idea, the logistics and things that must be done to accomplish that are a lot more difficult than dealing with recruiting individuals,” said Richard Shaw, a contractor to BEAR who is facilitating some of the recruiting efforts. “’What we are trying to do with this program is to find individuals who are retired, have small businesses that can utilize telecommuting or do a lot of travel for their business to move to the area. Many people want out of big metropolitan areas because of the hassles there, but few of them recognize what a place like Castle Country can offer them in terms of not only lifestyle, but also business support, high-speed Internet access via fiber networks and other things. Our purpose in this program is to educate people what the area is about and how it would benefit them to move here to conduct their lives.”
The program has been having its groundwork laid for the last year with videos and materials being produced that will interest people in what the advantages of the area are. A website has been established and will go live right after the first of the year to start the process. BEAR will use all promotion tools from television ads, print exposure and social media to get people interested in why they should live in the area.
One of the most important aspects of BEAR is its ability operate across county line. To the members of the BEAR executive board, it doesn’t matter if new or expanded business takes place in Carbonville or Ferron, its all good for the area. Political boundaries have no bearing on bringing business to the area.
Kranyc said that partnerships are extremely important in BEAR being able doing its best work. Either the Executive Board or the General Board meets every week to keep things on track. The General Board meetings are usually educational in nature and the public is invited to attend. Each meeting never exceeds one hour. Support for the operations comes from all kinds of agencies including USU Eastern, both Carbon and Emery counties, private businesses and a number of cities and towns in the area.
BEAR is a private group of volunteers and it is not a government agency, but some funding does come from the state and the counties. This year, BEAR has been working with Rep. Christine Watkins to secure more solid based funding for BEAR statewide. She is sponsoring legislation to put the Fast Track Program and BEAR Funding under the direction of the Governor’s Rural Partnership Board and to create line item funding for it.
BEAR also gets other funding from private enterprise as well as from grants it applies for. In the past, it has also put together programs that it offers that makes money for the organization that then is used to fund the BEAR activities and operations.
Castle County BEAR looks at the future in the area as being a bright one, especially if the efforts that it has put forth in its 12 years of existence continue to bear fruit. Estimates for the amount of funding the group has helped businesses get over that time is over $4 million.
The current Executive Board members of the group include Kraync, McCandless, Geri Gamber, Ryan Murray, Jordan Leonard, Ethan Migliori and Nick Tatton along with Delynn Fielding as a member emeritus. For more information about Castle Country BEAR and how it could help your business or how you can help in its efforts, contact Kraync at (435) 637-3130 or contact any of the Executive Board Members.