CLAREMORE — Economic developer Mickey Thompson told Rotary Club of Claremore members Tuesday about the opportunities for economic development in Claremore and Rogers County.

“I think it’s important if someone’s going to discuss economic development, that they get specific about what they’re talking about,” Thompson said. “Economic development is pretty big, and a lot of people think that retail development is economic development, or that visitors and convention-type activity is economic development. I would describe what I do (as an economic developer) as salesmanship.

“I try to help existing companies survive and expand, and I try to convince other companies that they would be well-off to move to our area,” he said. “I want you to understand that I don’t think of economic development, per se, as the most important ‘thing.’ There are other things which are more important, such as public education, career education, public safety, public health, community infrastructure, your home and your family and the life you enjoy. I don’t think economic development is the most important thing, but it is the first thing because it’s the only way I know of for us to afford the things we do consider to be the most important.”

Thompson, who also is executive director of the Claremore and Rogers County Industrial and Economic Development Authority and the Claremore-Rogers County Partnership for Economic Development, reminded Rotarians about some of selling points of Claremore and Rogers County to potential economic developments.

“We have a lot of opportunities here — I think we’ve got every chance in the world to build a strategic and sustainable economic development program that will produce results — and I don’t mean in the sweet by and by, I mean in the near-term,” he said. “I think we’re so well located — close to Tulsa, close to northwest Arkansas, close to middle America, and I think that’s important to everything we do — I remind my friends in Tulsa all the time that the Tulsa-Port of Catoosa is in Rogers County.

“I think the transportation here is just phenomenal, with the Port and Tulsa International being so close by, with a highway infrastructure that — once you get out of town is just incredible,” he said. “I like to tell the folks in Tulsa that we’ve got everything they have and in fact, that’s to our advantage.”

Thompson continued to tell Rotarians that Rogers County boasts “a lot of competitively priced land,” and the opportunities to use such for economic development are “numerous.”

“If you look at Claremore’s north and south business parks, and the existing and in-development business and industrial parks in the county. All those places are still competitively priced with the competition they face,” he said. “The education in Rogers County, particularly in Claremore, with the private and public schools, with RSU and Northeast Technology Center, with NSU just down the road, and with the universities in schools that surround the county. All of these things are ‘sellable advantages’ for us.

“We have an excellent workforce here. It’s value-based with a high work ethic, team players who are, for the most part, trained and experienced. I don’t say this lightly, but I’ve talked to manufacturers and they can attest that this is the case,” he said.

“Another thing we have here is options for ‘life after work’, with all the outdoors things. You can wet a hook in ten minutes and be in a boat in 45 minutes or less. There’s plenty of night life nearby, there’s everything that anybody could want to do in the way of culture and the arts. That makes us, I think, a pretty special place.”

Even with all its advantages for economic development, Rogers County and Claremore “should be doing better than we are,” Thompson said.

“When I first came aboard with CIEDA, I looked at the north industrial park. I think Pryor came about eight years ago, and nothing’s really happened out there since,” he said. “And you’ve got to ask if you’re going to sell it, ‘Why is that?.’ The ‘why’ is that we don’t have any consensus to be competitive with most of the places that do well in attracting new businesses or getting their existing businesses to expand.”

Thompson said he’s got some ideas on how to rectify this mindset.

“We’re marketing the idea of tax-increment financing,” he said. “People who don’t know about that usually throw their hands up when they first hear about it — most of the people that oppose it are those who have yet to hear what it’s about.

Once people learn more about what it is, they can understand why it’s important to helping us produce results in our economic development.

“We’re also going to be looking at what’s called a General Obligation Limited Term Bond,” he continued, “ and that does required a tax increase, that does require a vote of the people. The importance of it can be reflected in the history of Tulsa and Oklahoma City — up until about 15 years ago, Tulsa was ‘the’ city for economic development in Oklahoma, and today, it’s Oklahoma City, and now, Tulsa has fallen because they can’t compete (with Oklahoma City).

“The reason for this is that OKC found themselves in such a desperate situation that they knew they had to do something and they had the leadership to present them with some hard decisions — such as tax increased put to voters, which they were convinced were worth their while,” he said. “Because of that, Oklahoma City has completely replaced Tulsa as ‘the’ city in Oklahoma, which just makes me want to cry.”

The bottom line, Thompson said, is that Claremore and Rogers County have everything available which Tulsa does in terms of promoting economic development and has the people and resources to do anything necessary to remain competitive with any other location in the four-state area.