More than 70 people gather for town hall meeting in Onaway

by Angie Asam-Staff Writer

More than 70 people gathered at the Industrial Arts Institute, the former Art Van building, in Onaway for a town hall meeting organized by the Northern Lakes Economic Alliance (NLEA).

CITY COMMISSIONER Chuck Abshagen takes his turn explaining one of his notes on the things Onaway already has to offer that could be used to attract new business. (Photo by Angie Asam)

 

The April 3 meeting was designed so the community could come together and come up with ideas to help Onaway grow economically. The NLEA is a public/private non-profit organization serving Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan and Emmet Counties.  Established in 1984, the NLEA mission is to serve as a resource to local communities and businesses to retain and create jobs, building on the strong history and our “corporate culture” of regional cooperation.

The NLEA works directly with local units of government on infrastructure projects, which facilitates local company growth and expansion and assists many local companies on a wide range of issues that help, retain existing jobs and create new jobs.

In 2007 when the NLEA expanded to include Cheboygan County it also included Onaway. NLEA has helped Moran Iron Works on a variety of projects including the crane and expansion at the Port of Calcite.

After a brief introduction, Jan Kellogg and Andy Hayes of the NLEA asked the audience to split up into four groups where they would come up with ideas to share with the entire audience.

Each group started off with the task of coming up with the assets Onaway has to attract businesses to the area. Groups came up with many ideas including the highway,  water and sewer systems, low cost property, etc. A full recap of the ideas shared will be sent out in a few weeks.

The second task for each group was to come up with ideas on what Onaway needs moving forward.

Following a break in the action to enjoy some refreshments, Hayes invited Marilyn and Tom Moran to come forward and speak about what Moran Iron Works is up to. Thursday was the first event held in the company’s new Industrial Arts Institute, which is coming along nicely but is not yet completed. Tom said the goal is to have 300 employees by 2015. “We believe the school will be a big driver for our company,” said Tom who plans to graduate 100 students from the school with four classes of 25 people. The goal is to not only teach welding but classes on project management, electrical and other trades.

“One of the things, a big asset, that Onaway has that a lot of communities don’t have is they have a major employer that is growing and wants to grow. Feel very good about that, because that doesn’t happen in a lot of places,” said Hayes when asking the Morans to say a few words.

They also updated the audience on the housing study being funded by Iron One Foundation and their plans for the land they own behind the building. Moran plans to open an outdoor historical sculpture park. “We are putting in a nature, history, sculpture park, we expect it will be up and ready with lights by summer 2015. We are hoping you can walk it this summer time, but we won’t be able to completely finish it until 2015,” said Marilyn.

The park will be around the ruins of the steering wheel factory and

will discuss Onaway’s history as well as showcase some sculptures. Marilyn told the audience she wasn’t going to be letting any of the Fourth of July sculptures go any longer.

“You can’t have business without community and without workforce. All three go together,” said Tom.

NEXT, EACH group worked to come up with ideas of what they could do to promote and bring business into Onaway in the next year to 18 months. They were also instructed to come up with one best idea, what event or what they would do in the next year to bring in business and one crazy, off the wall idea.

“The ideas won’t end here. We will organize all of these ideas and maybe have another meeting to decide which of the ideas we really want to tackle,” said Hayes. The NLEA will be organizing the ideas given by the public and e-mailing them out to those who wanted copies in the next couple of weeks.