By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The City of Grayson, over the course of several budget meetings, approved the creation of a new parttime position for economic development, labeled Coordinator of Business Development. The new position has been filled by McClain Dyer, and he said that he wants to approach the new position using what might be called an immersive strategy. The goal of course, as the title of the new position suggests, is to develop new ways to both support existing businesses and attract new businesses to the city.
“Mayor Combs had me in mind to lead that initiative,” Dyer said. “I used to work as the business coordinator for the Grayson Area Chamber of Commerce. And we (the city) want to work with the chamber as much as possible to make our initiatives work.”
Dyer is currently sitting on the chamber’s economic development committee and hopes his connections there will help with improving businesses in the city and all of Carter County. He is also on the city’s planning and zoning commission.
Economic development has a broad scope, and Dyer said that he wants to focus on what best benefits the city.
“Everyone has an idea about what economic development is,” Dyer said. “For a lot of people, it’s, ‘Let’s put a steakhouse on Carol Malone Blvd.’ But as much as I want that to happen – and it is a great idea – we have to first foster an economy that will support it. That’s what we are trying to do.”
“We have a population rate problem,” Dyer continued, discussing some of the challenges the city faces. “Our population rate is going down. And that’s because we have no jobs here for our young people. So, what we have to do is find a way to create jobs in our community so people can afford to work here, live here, and raise their families here in Grayson.”
“That’s the goal,” he said. “Then we can start focusing on the smaller projects that make us feel better about where we live. There are things we can do to foster the smaller projects that lead to bigger projects and give us a stronger local economy. One of the ideas we have to support that is to fund a micro grant program like the City of Ashland or the City of Morehead.”
“Micro grants are where you can apply for a $2,000 grant through the city to cover or defray the startup cost of a new business,” Dyer explained. “Or if you are an existing business and you have an equipment malfunction, you could apply for a micro grant to help cover those costs.”
There is also the possibility, he said, that the city might help facilitate individuals in applying for the FIVCO Revolving Loan Program.
“We also want to work with nonprofits, businesses, corporations, and government entities to support development for Grayson and by extension for all of Carter County.”
Another thing Dyer said he would really like to be able to do in the future is to expand the tax base for the City of Grayson. In order to accomplish that, he said, residents outside the city limits would need to be shown the benefits of being within the city.
“There are benefits to being inside the city,” Dyer said. “But right now, they aren’t seeing those benefits.”
“The mayor, the city council, and all the department heads are doing a great job improving the city to show beautification, and to show progress,” Dyer said. “And with this position we are taking it a step further. We want to foster sustainable small businesses that employ people. We aren’t focused on change as such. We are focusing on growth. We want to retain what we have and expand upon it.”
“We want every business that is in Grayson to thrive and continue to grow,” Dyer continued. “But we also want to attract other businesses to bring in other things and other services that our community needs and wants here. To make that happen our business leaders, our community, and our elected officials need to come together to work on a plan to develop our region. And right now, I believe we are doing that.”
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
