Johnstown lets funds ride on Larimer County side

JOHNSTOWN — In a world where playing nice is the key to success, the Johnstown Town Board and the Johnstown Economic Development Association found out they just couldn’t play well together.

In early January, the Johnstown Town Board decided to invest $10,000 with the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp.

According to a statement at the time, town officials said they were impressed with the professionalism of the Northern Colorado EDC and its “Leadership 2010 Initiative.” The Leadership 2010 Initiative is a five-year plan focused on retaining local workers, marketing Northern Colorado and attracting economic opportunities to the area.

The decision to donate $10,000 to the Northern Colorado EDC appears innocuous. At closer look, the town board decided to put all of its eggs in one basket and give its entire economic-development budget for 2005 to an organization focused on Larimer County. A majority of Johnstown is in Weld County.

This move is the latest in a sequence of economic-development decisions in Johnstown. In 2003, the town withdrew it support from Weld County’s Greeley/Weld Economic Development Action Partnership. More recently, the town removed a majority of the budget from Johnstown’s volunteer-run JEDA.

“There has always been a few members of the town staff and board members that have been defensive about working with JEDA,´ said Allen Schaff, JEDA chairman. “There were some things in the past that affected the relationship, but we met with the town board, and we seemed to work things out.”

Schaff said the board may have had a little “heartburn after the whole ethanol thing,” when JEDA encouraged Front Range Energy to build an ethanol plant in Johnstown while the town board was against the idea. After the town board decision, Schaff wrote an opinion column sent to local media encouraging business to come to the growing town — despite the appearance of the town board.

“The decision gave the town a black eye in the business world,” Schaff said.

JEDA has since decided to disband because without a good working relationship with the town, it has no purpose. Johnstown officials decided in 2003 not to continue its $2,500-a-year-membership with EDAP, but at that time they left the door open to re-join. Apparently that won’t happen this year.

“We haven’t had any contact with anyone in Johnstown, but I understand the project out at (U.S. Highway 34 and Interstate 25) is their big focus,´ said Ron Klaphake, president and CEO of EDAP. “When communities are in two counties they often decide to work with one in a year and the other in the next year.”

Klaphake was referring to 2534, the commercial project at the southeast quadrant of I-25 and U.S. 34, which includes the new 48,000-square-foot Northern Colorado Rehabilitation Hospital, now under construction.

Scott James, a member of the Johnstown Town Board, said the board decided to solely fund NCEDC because of the experience the group brings to the table.

“Our thinking is that while JEDA is made up of many good local business-people, they lacked the lobbying and (economic-development) experience we were looking for,” James said.

The decision to focus economic-development funds with the NCEDC shows that town officials are tying the community’s future with the highways it borders — which lie mainly in Larimer County.

The town said it has already seen a financial gain from their funding decision, and Johnstown mayor Troy Mellon said the NCEDC was critical to Johnstown landing the rehabilitation hospital.

“The town board has complete confidence in NCEDC,” Mellon said. “We are thrilled about our investment in this premier economic-development organization.”

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