Happy New Year!   We hope you had a nice holiday season with plenty of optimism heading into 2016.   I want to thank the citizens, business community and the leadership of the North Platte area for its gracious and warm welcome to both Megan, our VP of Economic Development, and myself as we have transitioned into our new roles.
 
We’ve tried to meet with multiple groups, media, developers, business leaders and local government officials to gauge collectively what the community has as its vision for the future.  There were some definite common themes surrounding the need for more housing, additional recreational opportunities, downtown revitalization and of course the obvious – job growth diversification and workforce development.
 
Emphasis needs to be placed into each of these areas in a number of different ways, to accomplish any of the goals.  The most critical of these at this juncture in time, is definitely housing that meets all income needs in a variety of different developments.  You will see us place a lot of energy and effort laying the critical groundwork to keep the momentum going forward.   These goals were captured well in a recent North Platte Telegraph article this past weekend (insert link).
 
The “Shot in the Arm” program brought forward by the Chamber / Development Board and the City of North Platte last year seems to have exceeded even the most optimistic hopes and is a good springboard for additional good things to happen.  Housing Developers embraced the challenge and several of those 43 housing starts are in the initial phase moving forward.  In fact the “Shot in the Arm” housing effort was one of the key workshop agenda items when the State Chamber held their economic development summit in LaVista a few weeks ago.
 
You will soon be hearing and reading about additional housing development efforts as we move forward in 2016 and it will take all of us working together to make this a banner year.   The journey however is not about a “one year” thing, it’s an “all the time” effort - year after year - to keep “Big Mo” always on our side.
 
There is no equal to just plain old hard work and the staff and board of the North Platte Area and Development are committed to represent you in the best manner possible in the coming year.  Thank you for the faith you have placed into us and we accept and embrace your challenge to make things happen!
 
Gary Person
CEO & President