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HARTINGTON – Cedar County does not have an office that promotes economic development on a countywide scale, but that could change.
Randolph City Administrator/ Clerk Ben Benton met with the county board of commissioners on July 25 to discuss creating a county economic development office similar to one in Knox County.
Benton learned more about the Knox County initiative at a recent Nebraska Business Development Center meeting he attended hosted at Niobrara State Park. Visit Knox County promotes economic development and tourism in its county and Benton said he was impressed by the entity’s promotional items, which include a Knox County attractions guide and map.
Visit Knox County is partially funded by the county – including employee benefits – and partially funded by the incorporated communities in the county through interlocal agreements, with contribution amounts varying depending on population.
“That’s kind of a neat idea,” Benton said. “Thinking about Cedar County, Cedar County already has the tourism board. You guys do a phenomenal job with facilitating that. That’s got a lot of grants and a lot of really good things for the county.”
However, there is opportunity for countywide economic development.
“Tourism, economic development – they really go hand-in-hand,” he said. “They work with each other for the betterment of the area.”
Like Visit Knox County, Benton suggested creating an economic development office that is partially funded by Cedar County and partially funded by communities.
“The county itself benefits collectively,” said Benton, who recently was appointed to his first three-year term on the Norfolk-based Northeast Nebraska Economic Development District Board of Directors.
The city of Randolph’s economic development director position has been vacant since 2020. The city of Laurel also does not have an economic development director.
Mandy Bruning, Coleridge’s assistant village clerk who also is in charge of economic development, and Miranda Becker, the city of Hartington’s economic development coordinator, also attended the commissioners’ meeting.
“These are the only two economic developers in all of Cedar County,” Benton said. “My thought process is, instead of each community trying to do their own thing, let’s create a unit that represents Cedar County for the benefit of all communities.”
When the communities in Cedar County prosper, the county as a whole prospers, he said.
“In the end, we want people to come to Cedar County,” Benton said. “We want people to open a business here and raise a family here and . . . pay those property taxes.”
Board Chairman Dave McGregor said this idea has been brought up before to the commissioners.
“One time years ago, we discussed a countywide economic development director,” he said. “The towns – they kind of wanted their own.”
Benton said discussions with each community during the next year would be key to see whether they would support a county economic development office.
“It’s cyclical,” Benton said. “I think right now, you would find that the communities might come together.”
If Cedar County created a county economic development office that also received funding from each community in the county, the contribution amounts should be based on each town’s population.
“Second-class cities would pay more than a village,” Benton said. “It just has to make sense for everybody. It can’t be a flat fee.”
Hartington, Laurel and Randolph are second-class cities in Cedar County, while Belden, Coleridge, Fordyce, Magnet, Obert, St. Helena and Wynot are villages.
Benton said he has good working relationships with other city administrators and village clerks, as well as with Bruning and Becker.
“I can start planting seeds and asking questions,” Benton said of gauging whether other communities in the county would be interested.
