Economic Development Anyone?

The most important goal our town has is Economic Development. How we accomplish what are needs are was finally talked about in a workshop the council just had. The majority is leaning toward using a combination of outside agencies such as DEDC, Derry Chamber of Commerce, Derry Housing and Redevelopment and hiring a new town employee whos title will be Economic Coordinator. ( we did have an option of a ED Director at a cost of $94K) The coordinators' salary will be in the 45K range ( before benefits of course) Now we must get to the details of how everything will work so stay tuned. My suggestions are as follows: We fund the DEDC 30K first and get them going. They will report to the council on a quartely basis and both parties may terminate contract with proper notice. lets take the balance that was in the budget 30K and the 50K from Admin budget and the 45K that was interest payment from the planned but now defunct firestation and lets use this for the Exit 4A EIS study instead of making a supplemental appropriation - this way the taxpayers save 125K. Now we need to fund the coordinator postion. I say because we are late in the year and the fact that we have an important March election coming up. Let the elected councilors put the position and the funding in the new budget come march. This also gives us a chance to see what then the DEDC will accomplish. I think this is the best way to go and we don't rush into hiring someone. We need to do it right!
I'm interesed in your thoughts!