In every corner of America, villages, cities, counties and state are attempting to find a way to economic recovery. First Northern U.S. Jobs were shipped south of the Mason-Dixon Line. They went south for the sunshine, but mostly they moved south seeking lower payrolls and lower taxes.

Now, many of those jobs have gone to China for the very same reasons. As a result, thousands of communities across the country are seeking ways to create an economic turnaround. We’re now competing with other U.S. Communities as well as China, Korea, India and Mexico, for the few jobs still available.

Each community thinks it has a sure given plan for success. We’re no exception. Right here in the Western U.P. Many plans abound.

With the exodus of Smurfit-Stone, Ontonagon businessmen and civic leaders, sprung to action and formed the Ontonagon Partnership For Economic Growth. The group has formed committees for everything imaginable and seemed to be on road to success. If I were to bet on any of these projects I would have put my money on the Ontonagon Partnership.

That bet is off as of last Thursday night. Following Bart Stupak’s Town hall meeting, the Ontonagon Partnership held its own meeting. The meeting started off well, with some really good news of some positive events. The group was to seek out a countywide Economic Development Director. Their standards, requirements and salary expectations were very realistic. The search for funding ranged from private capitalization to grant money.

Then, the whole project became derailed, when Kim Stoker, Executive Director of WUPPDR, spoke to the group. He began by telling the group that he and his organization was really too busy to take on the additional burden of a Regional Economic Development Director. Stoker then spent the next twenty minutes selling the audience on just the opposite.

By the end of the evening he had the group jumping out of the seats to turn their future over to WUPPDR. Not only that he had convinced them that they would have to anti-up $15,000 to 20,000 for the privilege of throwing away their future...

Only one or two people in the audience were smart enough to ask pertinent questions. Pat Ticker, expressed some serious concerns over what was going down.

I’m sure our readers are aware that the Michigan EDC wants to steal our revolving loan funds and put it into a common regional fund. The catch is, only Ironwood, Gogebic and Ontonagon have any real money in their accounts to put into the fund. Houghton and other WUPPDR members have spent all their funds. The EDC would like WUPPDR to administer the stolen money.

Get the picture, Houghton will have our money to play with and economic development director working for WUPPDR who will be the primary advisor as to where these funds should go. WOW!

If WUPPDR is the key to economic success, why are we in the mess we’re already in.　

We have the entire WUPPDR presentation videos below. Just remember to hold on tightly to your wallets when you watch them.

WUPPDR stands for Western Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Region. http://www.wuppdr.org