Look to the Future ...

Residents Invited to Brainstorming Session
Anyone who cares about Marquette County shouldn't miss the final opportunity to make suggestions for promoting its future development.
Suggestions on how to shape Marquette County's image and planning are welcome at a brainstorming session Tuesday, May 21st from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Steer and Stein restaurant in Marquette.
Livable Community Partners for Marquette County is hosting the "Charette" and has invited community and business leaders to attend. For more than a year, this group of Marquette believers has been meeting to develop "a brand, image and marketing plan" for the future of Marquette.
The group is a joint effort of the Lake Superior Community Partnership, and the Marquette Community Foundation. Board members from both groups are part of the ten-member livable community board.
Recently, the group finished raising the $50,000 needed to join a three-year marketing project headed by Robert McNulty, president and CEO of Partners for Livable Communities, based in Washington D.C. Marquette County is the smallest of sixteen communities using McNulty's firm to help plan their future.
"We are, by far, the smallest community (to hire McNulty's organization)," said Stu Bradley, group chairman and former Marquette mayor. "We're talking Oakland, San Jose and Ventura in California; St. Louis and Kansas City in Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; Rochester, New York; and even the entire state of Maryland."
The group already has developed a general direction and ideas for the future, but they need more input from community. Everyone is encouraged to attend the meeting, and invitations have been sent to about 200 people from all corners of the U.P., Bradley said.
The meeting will include breaking up into smaller groups with common concerns and goals.
"We'll tell them where we are and where we think we want to go, and see if they think that is appropriate," Bradley said.
McNulty told the Marquette Monthly that the county needs to change the impression some may have about the snow and cold. This can be done through a marketing campaign that includes national press exposure, McNulty said.
"Marquette, as the capital of the Upper Peninsula, (is) seen as one of the most livable cities in America," McNulty said.
Marquette needs a campaign that isn't "preoccupied over its 301 inches of snowfall but talks more about the quality of life, the intelligence of the labor force, the beauty of the setting, and it's a hidden gem that people should discover," McNulty said.
Newcomers are needed but "not too many more people because you don't want to ruin that wonderful setting that you have," McNulty said.
America's perception of Marquette's image "is basically a lot of snow," McNulty said.
"But I've discovered a number of people who have relatives in, or spend part of the year in Marquette and they see it as one of the great places in North America," McNulty said.
Marquette is a well-hidden secret, McNulty said. But its image is "it's located way north and gets a lot of snow."
McNulty's group and local officials can help diversify that snowy cold image.
"We specialize in helping to somehow pull loose those assets to create a media campaign" involving news articles and not necessarily paid advertising, McNulty said.
Examples include writing articles about Marquette "as an educated, creative, unique very special place" to raise a family and start a business, McNulty said.
Marquette County has a wide range of summer and winter activities that will attract visitors, but McNulty said "what (Marquette lacks) is the glamour and glitz of the downhill skiing" such as resorts in Utah.
"So you have to somehow re-invent the ski jumping and the snowmobiling and the cross country skiing as something that's going to appeal to young, physically active, highly energetic entrepreneurs and their families," McNulty said. "That this is a great place to grow a family and raise a business."
McNulty said this month's brainstorming charette (a gathering) is a good idea and a way to get the community involved in the effort.
Free thinking is encouraged; don't be afraid to raise an idea others may not agree with, Bradley said. All ideas will be welcome.
"I am sure they are going to find some things that are positive and some things that aren't so positive in their mind, and maybe come up with a little bit different direction." Hopefully the meeting will end with ideas "that we can sell county-wide," Bradley said.
Bradley said the group doesn't want to "get in the way" of existing events, only to help and support in appropriate ways.
The group's Marquette County mission statement is: "The greatest gift a community can offer its people is a quality of life and economic opportunities that will allow them to flourish today and tomorrow in a place they call home."
Bradley says the economic future of Marquette County depends on jobs, jobs, jobs. Current industry and businesses must be encouraged to stay and expand, and new industry must come to town, Bradley said.
"In other words, giving our young people, whether they are high school graduates or college graduates, an opportunity to stay and have a job they can support a family with," Bradley said. "That's a challenge because we are a little isolated."
That isolation can work for and against Marquette County.
"There are some types of companies that couldn't come up here and and survive just because of the distances," Bradley said. "We're not going to make cars up here because of the distance and the travel and transportation requirements."
Bradley said "there are a lot of things we can do" adding that the annual Noquamenon cross country ski race is an example of a winter sport that attracts thousands from around the Midwest.
In fact, one race participant moved to the U.P. after discovering Pioneer Labs and then was hired, Bradley said, adding the man was the "right fit" for the company.
Most new jobs in any community are created by existing firms, and Bradley said, it's important to help them expand or attract compatible businesses.
"We need to make sure (existing businesses) have enough land, and that we are treating them fairly on taxes, and that we help publicize their existence," Bradley said.
Bradley said some people don't want to live in small communities or can't handle the cold winters, but thousands of others would love the quality of life, if they could only find work.
"Jobs is the number one thing," Bradley said. "Most people, especially those who want to raise a family, are worried about safety. We've got all that; it's just making sure we've got jobs out there."
McNulty's firm will provide a wide-range of assistance for the $50,000 including a shot at some national media articles on Marquette County and what the area has to offer visitors and prospective industry, Bradley said.
"I think we are going to get an awful lot more publicity because we are quite different than the rest of them," Bradley said. "At the end of the three-year program, we believe that we will be recognized as one of the premier places in America to live, work and play.
"We believe we will be spotlighted in several national publications as being one of the most livable communities in America."
Last summer, Marquette County commissioners approved $25,000 in economic development funds, and recently the group received approval of its $30,000 request from the state of Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Bradley said. Another $5,000 was given by donors.
After paying McNulty $50,000, the remaining $10,000 will be used for group-approved projects and plans, Bradley said.
Similar efforts McNulty has underway are already bearing fruit, he said. A two-day workshop "to define the image and marketing value" of Roanoke, Virginia during mid-April attracted over 150 people from as far as 100 miles away, McNulty said.
Roanoke and Marquette's similar problems include being remote, not well-known and improving communication between groups and population segments, McNulty said. On the positive side, Roanoke and Marquette both have a great university, a beautiful natural setting, and a handsome downtown, McNulty said.
"It's just a matter of trying to put together a regional team that believes in (itself) and markets the heck out of those resources," McNulty said. "If we could bring in the right people, engage your local citizens in the right way, and (provide) a good mechanism for following up, then you could do dramatic things and make dramatic changes."
The Marquette group will have to let McNulty and his team know what services they need.
"We do primarily urban panning, strategic planning, regional strategies, (and) economic development, we do some marketing and public relations, " McNulty said. "We'll just respond to what ever Marquette says they want our help for. One thing you don't want to do as an outsider is to offer advice when no one wants your advice."
McNulty's "livable communities" concept stresses tourism, culture, quality of life and economic development infrastructure to plan for the future—utilizing arts and a community's vast cultural heritage.
Suggestions offered at the May 21 meeting will be reviewed by the board of Livable Community Partners for Marquette County. Then McNulty's firm will help create a county-wide marketing plan based on the suggestions.
"Our objective is to create a nationally recognized brand or image for our community that every organization in the county can use to market themselves," Bradley said.
The effort will require cooperation between groups, organizations and businesses, and some modification of current marketing strategies.
"We can all jointly market ourselves with the same image or brand," Bradley said. "So we all focus our marketing efforts the same way."
The livable community project won't stop with national publicity or a common marketing theme.
"We also want to have five or six different projects that we want to focus on to help make our community a place where people and employers want to come," Bradley said.
Marquette County's existing positives include a talented labor pool with an unusually high work ethic, low crime, fresh air and excellent education and training opportunities. In some ways, these strengths are our own little secret and need to be publicized nationally, Bradley said.
The group's goals include: develop and diversify Marquette County's economy to foster career opportunities and good paying jobs; enhance the livability of the community for all area residents; cultivate a "four-season" culture that will turn weekend opportunities into assets; and market Marquette County as a premier place to live, work and recreate.
McNulty, who spoke to the Economic Club of Marquette County in February 2001, will be visiting the Copper Country shortly before the Marquette brainstorming session this month.
He will be the keynote speaker for the 2002 Upper Peninsula Tourism Conference May 15 and 16 in Copper Harbor. The conference theme is "Rebuilding Our Past."
—Greg Peterson

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