Wednesday afternoon Joshua hosted it's first 12@12 meeting of local businesses. The format is a lunch, provided graciously by IESI, with a dozen local businesses and a few city representatives to get to know each other and find out what we as a city can do to help their businesses thrive. It was really great! I'd like to say I know every business in town, but I certainly do not. I had no idea we had a company that exports rubber parts to Russia, but right here in town is Petro Rubber doing just that. On the other end of town is OEM working on hydraulic units for heavy equipment in a 300 foot long building and needing to expand. I'm not sure how a 300 foot building has remained hidden from me, but I'm looking forward to stopping by both of these businesses to learn more about what they do and how I might be able to help them grow.
I know from the city side of the meeting it was well worth the time and I'm looking forward to our next meeting in August where the invitees will be from Main Street and the focus will be on old downtown revitalization. That's a big task, but it won't ever get going if we don't start talking about it so I'm glad our host group was so supportive of the idea when I brought it up. If the business and landowners are supportive and the city council and chamber of commerce get behind it then nothing will stop us from making it a reality.
A.J.
It's amazing what goes on in our home towns that we are completely unware of as citizens. This sounds like a great forum...keep up the good work.
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