"If there was an unscripted theme to the journey taken September 27-29 by leaders from Madison County, it soon emerged on its own in a continually repeated word: partnership.
To begin, the trip to Chattanooga, Tenn., was the third annual Community Leadership trip partnered by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce and the Berea Chamber of Commerce. Leaders from the county's government, businesses, colleges and universities, and arts organizations all came together to investigate some of the ways the city of Chattanooga has been successful and to determine if they could be applied back home.
"This trip is to seek out ideas," said Rob Rumpke, president of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce. "In the last decade, the county has come a long way in cooperating. In the past, we often worked in silos; these trips are invaluable in creating bonds."
Rumpke noted that the annual trip was also an important opportunity to form partnerships with elected officials. Among those making the trip to Chattanooga were Commissioners Robert Blythe and Kay Jones, Richmond Mayor Connie Lawson, Senator Ed Worley, and Judge Executive Kent Clark. Berea Mayor Steve Connolly had attended the two previous trips, but was unable to attend this one, Rumpke said.
In his welcome to the group, Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey, shared one of Chattanooga's secrets for success: "Find leaders in the private sector and back them to make changes." Chattanooga, he said, was once one of the great cities in the country. Now, due to the partnership with the private sector, there is a "new spirit about Chattanooga."
That new spirit was most evident in a revitalized downtown. "How do we get people downtown?" Mayor Ramsey asked. "We give them the same things they have in the suburbs." This has meant that the majority of programs that have revitalized downtown Chattanooga have come from the private sector, he said. For example, at one point, the private sector raised $8 million to build a second public elementary school downtown.
In the 1980s, Chattanooga was a city separated from its riverfront, Ramsey said. By 2005, the waterfront had changed dramatically with a $120 million revitalization. The Tennessee Aquarium, which many of the Kentucky delegation had the opportunity to tour, is the cornerstone of that revitalization. Over $45 million in private funds have been used to build the aquarium, the mayor said, and it now draws 1.5 million visitors per year.
Part of the impetus for the change came in 1969, when national newscaster Walter Cronkite announced that Chattanooga was America's dirtiest city. Two decades later, U.S. News and World Report called it "one of the best cities in the world." The fourth largest city in Tennessee, Chattanooga has a population of 156,000. Hamilton County is double that.
As Jim Bowen, vice president of the RiverCity Company, explained to the Kentucky group, Chattanooga has gained national recognition for leveraging development funds through private/public partnerships. They have also become known for civic involvement on the part of private foundations.
The RiverCity Company is a private, non-profit corporation created in 1986 to implement plans for the riverfront and downtown development. It was capitalized initially with $12 million from eight local foundations and seven local financial institutions.
The group has helped to develop real estate, build downtown housing, and create economic development with a central business district, among many other projects. It also is responsible for over 160 days of downtown events, concerts and activities designed to enhance the downtown, Bowen said.
Public/private partnerships have also been responsible for the development of a 2,000-acre industrial park, a new Bell South Ball Park, the reopening of Walnut Street Bridge as a pedestrian highway, and the establishment of 13 miles of trails and 150 acres of parks along the riverfront, he added. The Riverpark was one of the community's earliest public/private partnerships.
The establishment of The Business Development Center in Chattanooga has created another opportunity for synergy, Angela Glover, executive director, told the group. The center, used to nurture new start-up companies, is owned by Hamilton County and operated by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. While national statistics reveal that 80 percent of new businesses fail within 3-5 years of start-up, the Center boasts an 86 percent success rate.
Chattanooga was among the first U.S. cities to use a citizen visioning process to set long-term goals, according to Karen Hundt, director of the Planning & Design Studio. As one of their final activities, she led the Kentucky group through an abbreviated version of the visioning process designed to get input from many sources within a community.
"We constantly heard the repetition of a common theme," said Dr. Byron Bond, dean, EKU Continuing Education and Outreach. "We must work together. The idea of inclusion was part of every discussion."
Holly Neal, regional marketing manager for Cellular One, and a member of the Richmond Chamber, said the Madison County groups would take the information they had gathered during the trip and put it into action. "We have very progressive community chambers as part of this trip," she said. "We all want to make Madison County the best it can be."
Last year's trip resulted in the establishment of two joint task forces, tourism and economic development, Chamber President Rumpke said. "Chattanooga gave us further vision on how to take next steps," he said. "These trips are invaluable in helping to reengineer our work in the coming years."