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released 6/8/2001
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TO ONLINE NEWS New
amphitheatre helps put county on the radar screen Who would have
guessed that the rock group the Stone Temple Pilots would be the
harbinger of an economic boom for sleepy Yuba County? Last
June, the band kicked off the premier season at the Sacramento Valley
Area Amphitheatre, a $25 million, 18,500-seat facility built by
veteran concert promoter Bill Graham Presents to serve the greater
Sacramento Valley and Northern California. Yuba County economic
development officials welcomed BGP with open arms after other local
governments turned the promoter down. That
business-friendly attitude helped make the year 2000 a very good one
indeed for Yuba County. Another feather in the county’s cap:
Ponderosa Forest Industries last year relocated its corporate
headquarters to Yuba County and expanded operations to more than 75
employees and 65,000 square feet of new industrial and office space.
Underscoring those successes, Forbes Magazine ranked Yuba-Sutter as
one of the top three small Metropolitan Best Places to Do Business in
California. John Fleming,
who in 1999 became the county’s first ever economic development
coordinator, is leading the charge to put Yuba County on the map.
“We’re very busy,” said Fleming about the county’s economic
development efforts. Last year, the
county Board of Supervisors ratified the first Economic Strategic
Development Plan and formed a marketing committee to implement the
plan. It outlines eight objectives, including marketing business
attraction and retention, development education, communication,
tourism and research. The strategic plan grew out of an employment
task force formed to reduce unemployment in the county to single
digits. Historically, over the last two decades unemployment in the
county has been at 10 to 25 percent. It is now down to 8 percent,
Fleming said. Getting BGP to
build its amphitheater in the county will have numerous financial
benefits, said Fleming. In addition to providing the county $55,000 a
year in property tax revenue (as well as a small portion of the sales
tax on food and concessions), it will attract more than 250,000
concertgoers annually who wouldn’t otherwise come to the county.
Those people, said Fleming, will spend money in the area’s hotels,
restaurants, fast-food outlets and service stations. To educate
those people about Yuba’s charms, Fleming has produced two guides,
including a hotel and restaurant guide and a recreation guide. His
department will also host an information booth at concerts. More visitors
are expected to come to the amphitheater when the Motorplex, a
40,000-seat racing venue, holds its first race in2002. Yuba County got some disappointing news last year when a Business Incubator Feasibility Study found little interest in the county as a site for business incubators, which nurture young startups. Economic development officials decided instead to focus its efforts on establishing Yuba County as a “spoke on the incubator wheel,” according to Fleming. “If you have an incubator at McClellan, Yuba could serve as a satellite location, rather than as a independent site” he explained. “Companies can reduce costs that way.”
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