Though he has attended countless meetings over the last three weeks, the new head of Shawano County Economic Progress, Inc. on Thursday had probably his most intensive introduction to the wide range of people and interests he will be working for in his new job.
Over the course of a two-hour meet-and-greet, Dennis Heling, SCEPI’s chief economic development officer, heard the questions and concerns of representatives from small and big business, education, health, community organizations, state officials, and the city and county.
“Many of the people I’ve met today are talking about the future and how the role of economic development is going to assist various things like education,” Heling said.
A key topic, he said, was the need for technical education and often the lack of technical skills needed in today’s work force.
Heling also heard from a number of small business owners who were primarily concerned about increasing business-to-business resources.
“We’re looking really closely and carefully at how we can develop that connection,” Heling said, which would include improving SCEPI’s website to allow business owners to connect with other local businesses.
Heling, a Shawano County native, officially took over at SCEPI on Aug. 30, after 10 years as Jefferson County’s economic development consortium director.
Heling will bring that experience and background to his job here, but that doesn’t mean the same approaches to economic development will work in Shawano County.
“We’re different communities,” Heling said.
Heling also noted that a lot of the heavy-lifting in developing s strategy for economic development has already been done, through long-range plans developed by the city and county and other organizations.
“We’re bringing all of that together in making this an overarching approach to economic development,” he said.
“Right now I’m in READ mode,” Heling said, which stands for Review, Evaluate, Analyze and Document.
Heling has been reviewing everything from long-range plans to community surveys on such things as parks and bike paths.
“We’ll take that information and we have some traditional economic development activities and principles that we would apply,” he said. “It will help us form our guiding principles for that visioning and implementing of activities we’re going to be involved in.”
Heling said his goal would be to connect the dots between the various communities of interest; not just individual municipalities, but the communities within those municipalities that share a common interest with others, such as those wanting to promote water sports or snowmobiling.
Heling graduated from Shawano High School in 1971, but, with friends and family here, he has never been away for more than a few months at a time, he said.
Heling’s uncle and aunt, Wally and Charlene Heling, attended Thursday’s session at the Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce.
Wally Heling has been actively involved with the city for years and sits on the Senior Citizens Commission.
Dennis Heling noted there have been many changes since he graduated high school and some of the recent ones, like the state Highway 29 bypass and the new Wolf River bridge, and upcoming ones, like the new Shawano Medical Center, are providing the infrastructure for the area’s future.
Heling said he looks at the area differently now.
“Now I have the opportunity to put on a different set of glasses,” he said. “My glasses from years ago was that of something of maybe a business person. Now my glasses are of an economic development professional in viewing what (the area) was compared to what it can be.”
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