Bartlett

Q. What signs of economic turnaround do you see in the communities your chamber serves?A. Other than some construction jobs created from the recovery act and funded by the tax payers our area shows no signs of economic turnaround.Q. What type of new development will be most prevalent? Retail, residential, industrial, office or something else?A. We predict that our industrial sector would create the biggest impact due to the number of jobs created.Q. How optimistic are you that vacant storefronts and office buildings will be filled during this turnaround? Why or why not?A. We are not optimistic that our vacancy problem will be resolved any time in the next couple of years.Q. What do you think local, state and/or national government leaders could do to enhance the recovery?A. Stop bailing out big business and open capital up to small and mid-sized business.Q. Is there any pending legislation at those levels you particularly support? Any you oppose?A. The party in the majority in Springfield will not even consider reading a bill that suggests balancing our budget.Q. Do you agree that this will be a jobless recovery or are the suburbs more or less immune to that?A. For our area and our local retail business base it will take more jobs to spark people to maintain their previous lifestyle.Q. What is your chamber doing to best position its membership for the economic rebound? A. We are providing seminars to help our members create low-cost marketing strategies.Q. What is your town's biggest economic development wish?A. Fill our vacant retail space with well-capitalized successful businesses.Q. What is your community's single greatest asset or selling point to potential developers?A. Great hometown community with a solid history.Q. Have the challenges presented by the current downturn forced you and your community to approach economic development differently?A. Yes - we have extended a downtown TIF to provide extra capital for business improvements.