When the topic is business in the town of Fairfield, the subject of General Electric”™s imminent move always comes up.
“There”™s no question about it,” said Mark Barnhart, Fairfield Community and Economic Development (CED) director. “Although we started this in the weeks before GE came to the fore, (its announced move to Boston) certainly added weight and significance to it.”
The “it” in this case is a combination of an online survey, targeted interviews and subsequent workshops about the current state of the town”™s business climate and economic development, and how both residents and business owners would like to see it evolve.
Barnhart described the initiative as part of the CED”™s “long-range strategic plan that we launched a few months ago. This will serve as a blueprint to guide our efforts over the next several years.”
The announcement of the survey, available at fairfieldct.org/cedsurvey, was delayed when the GE situation arose, he said. “It”™s tough to do something of this kind when there”™s an open question about whether GE will stay or go,” Barnhart said. “That they chose to leave adds even more significance to this effort.”
The survey is being conducted on the town”™s behalf by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center Inc. (CERC) on behalf of the Fairfield Economic Development Commission. CERC, based in Rocky Hill, is a nonprofit corporation and public-private partnership that seeks to provide clients with strategic business, real estate, research and marketing services.
The resource center is also conducting interviews with key decision-makers in both the business and residential communities to, in Barnhart”™s words, “find out what their needs are and how we can assist them.” The entire effort will “allow us to look at the programs and services we provide currently, and where we could or should allocate our resources in the future.”
Once that work is completed ”” the survey is scheduled to run through June 10, with the interviews completed around that same time ”” CERC will hold several facilitated workshops to build consensus around economic development priorities and goals. The entire effort, which is partially underwritten by a grant from the United Illuminating Co. and Southern Connecticut Gas, is expected to be completed by this fall.
Response so far has been impressive, Barnhart said.
“During the first week we received about 100 surveys, which we are very pleased with.” The CED has yet to dig into what people are actually saying, preferring to wait until all the data is collected.
In addition to the initial announcement of the survey on May 17, he said the CED is striving to encourage participation through email blasts to residents and business owners as well as signs at the Fairfield Public Library and through the town”™s Chamber of Commerce.
“It”™s been many years since we”™ve done a strategic plan like this,” Barnhart said. “We felt it was a good idea to touch base with our ”˜customers,”™ so to speak, to make sure we”™re doing the right mix of things.”
