Cheyenne mayor Patrick Collins addresses the Platte County Economic Development

Mark DeLap
Posted 10/31/22

Platte County Economic Development dinner

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Cheyenne mayor Patrick Collins addresses the Platte County Economic Development

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WHEATLAND – The annual business meeting and dinner for the Platte County Economic Development was held Oct. 12 at the new 10th Street Social Club in Wheatland.

Special speaker for the dinner and meeting was Cheyenne mayor Patrick Collins who spoke about growing a community and the economic growth factors that need to be in place.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a greater time to do economic development in Wyoming than what we have currently,” Collins said. “With all the stuff that’s going on, social arrest, political discord and the pandemic reach, we here in Cheyenne and you in Platte County are in an oasis.”

There were over 60 people who attended the meeting this year and the event was catered by The Pie Tin Bakery and Catering. This year’s organizer Brook Brockman-Guest billed it as a ‘50s tribute, there were many that dressed up in ‘50s attire.

According to Platte County Economic Development director Merlin Hitt, he stated that the PCED is a facilitator for the exchange of information for networking with other businesses.

“We are also a liason,” Hitt said. “Between business and government agencies and between our community organizations.”

The PCED partners with, the Small business Development Center (SBDC), the Wyoming Women’s Business Center, the Wyoming Business Council (WBC), Wyoming Workforce Center, Guernsey Economic and Tourism Development Corporation (GETDC), Chugwater Housing and Economic Development (CHED), Platte County Chamber of Commerce, Platte County Main Street and Pennies for Platte County Progress

“We maintain the available property database, a list of community amenities, a list of infrastructure status,” Hitt said. “We also offer our members low interest business loans, business referrals and counseling as well as new business leads.”

One of the other things that PCED does is make sure the communication lines are open to the cities within Platte County. For the dinner, Chugwater, Glendo and Guernsey were all represented by officiants from their towns.

“If you want to promote a sustainable economy in Platte County, want to provide economic stability for citizens and enough good paying jobs to stem the loss of 75% of our graduating seniors to neighboring communities and states, want to provide a thriving and growing tax base to insure continued services to community and want to maintain jobs to preserve our culture and resources, then you need to join PCED.”

Speaking about economic development, Collins said that this was a great time to try to get out of state businesses to come and become part of the Wyoming family of industry and commerce.

“We have a Wyoming Business Council and they have been blessed with funds to help us with our efforts to bring primary jobs to our communitites and our state,” Collins said. “This is a great time to be in Wyoming and be in this business.”

Collins went on to address elected officials and said that it’s a challenge when budgets need to be created.

“We all feel we pay enough in taxes, right?” Collins asked the group. “But when we do our budgets, it’s never enough to pay for all the things that we truly need to do. It’s my personal goal as mayor to get to the point where Cheyenne’s economy is diversified grows to the point where we have enough local tax dollars to do the things we need to do.”

Collins brought up the fact that there has been a loss of jobs and that the job of economic developers is to try to stabilize.

“So what can we do to successfully meet the challenge of recruiting and retaining primary jobs in our communities,” he asked. “I think the first thing is that we need to make investments in our own communities. I don’t think companies want to come to communities that don’t invest in themselves. I think we should really work on the quality of life as we are competing against other communities inside and outside of Wyoming.”

Collins told each business owner to look at the quality of the community and ask yourself if you were looking for employment, would this be a type of community you’d want to both live and work in? He also told the audience about the time, when in the great boom of Denver’s economy was exploding, some of the things that it was doing.

“Wellington Webb, the mayor of Denver during the boom came and spoke to us about what they were doing,” Collins said. “Webb told us that during this unprecedented success. He said three things. ‘I build great roads, great schools and I build great parks. If you show you care about your community, the businesses will come.’

Another key point was the need to reach out to the front line workers in the community stating that the restaurant owners, the waiters, the service station attendants, the shop keeps are the ones that ultimately meet the tourists and the public face to face. If, when they are asked about the community and the answer is negative, that word-of-mouth negativity has a huge reach, not only to the people of Wyoming but to the ears of America.          

“Let’s say a tourist is having breakfast here and asks about your town,” Collins said. “And they (the waitstaff) kill your town. ‘There’s nothing to do, the place is going to hell, they are all on drugs,’ stuff like that. That’s not the story we should be telling. So I think we need to spend some time working with our front line people who tell our story and tell them the story you want them to tell so that when people come to visit, they are first in line to speak positive about your city and town.”

Bottom pictures: 

Josh Hopkins from the Chugwater Economic Development Committee was present to hear Cheyenne mayor Patrick Collins address the Platte County Economic Development Committee.

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Dan Brecht, former owner of the Wandering Hermit and Bookstore and a part of Platte County Main Street development committee was in the buffet line at the annual meeting and dinner of the Platte County Economic Development.