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John Sowell The Roseburg News-Review September 27, 2006
Education could be the ultimate key to attracting major employers to Douglas County, a panel of economic development experts said Tuesday.The county’s high dropout rate for high school students has soured several companies that were eyeing Douglas County for possible relocation, said Helga Conrad, director of the Umpqua Economic Development Partnership.
Companies view dropout rates as one indicator of the quality of the labor pool for a given area. Douglas County’s dropout rate of 5.3 percent for the 2003-04 school year was nearly a percentage point higher than the state average.
“Economic development and work force development are closely tied together,” Conrad told a group of about 60 people who attended the panel discussion at Roseburg City Hall. “I feel very passionate about that.”
The importance of education for business development was what prompted Conrad to seek election to the Umpqua Community College Board. She was elected to one of the board positions last year.
Conrad was joined by Betty Tamm, executive director of the Umpqua Community Development Corp., and Sue Shaffer, chairwoman of the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians. The 90-minute panel discussion was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Umpqua Valley.
Shaffer said it’s important to develop mentoring programs for teenagers. Youngsters could benefit from the experience of business leaders and form relationships that might help encourage them to remain in the area after they’ve finished their educations.
At the same time, Tamm said, local leaders need to work harder to find ways to entice those high achievers who have left Douglas County to return.
“We have to work to reverse the brain drain,” she said.
All three panelists praised the efforts of UCC officials to develop training programs for several companies that have come into the area and others that were already located here and expanded their work forces.
They also complimented the two-year college for its vocational education offerings. Those programs fill an important need, they said.
One of the problems with attracting new companies to the area, the panelists said, is the lack of affordable housing, especially around Roseburg. New homes aren’t available in large numbers and those on the market throughout Oregon tend to sell at higher prices than in other parts of the country.
Housing prices along the entire Interstate 5 corridor throughout Oregon command high prices. The market has been influenced by the number of people moving from California, where prices are much higher. Buyers from there are oftentimes more willing to pay the asking price for a residence, because they can buy a comparable home for much less money than where they came from.
However, that can negatively influence officials from companies looking to relocate from areas in the United States where housing prices are more moderate.
“As housing prices have gone up, it has become a bigger dilemma,” Tamm said.