Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: Tom Demmer, Lee County Industrial Development

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Talk-Line: Tom Demmer, Lee County Industrial Development · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: It's time for another information edition of Tukline here at
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  Speaker 1: WIX and Radio. Good morning, I'm Steve Marco. It is
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  Speaker 1: time to touch base with our friends from the Lee
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  Speaker 1: County Industrial Development Association. And touching base with us today
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  Speaker 1: is the executive director. He's in charge of that organization
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  Speaker 1: as we move forward into twenty twenty five. Our good
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  Speaker 1: friend Tom Demmer. It's live with this at the microphones
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  Speaker 1: this morning here at w y X and Radio. Good morning, sir, Good.
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  Speaker 2: Morning, Steve. Glad to be here with it.
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  Speaker 1: Is nice to have you on board with us, and
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  Speaker 1: we thank you so very much. Tom's going to be
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  Speaker 1: making periodic visits he has so far through twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: five periodic visits to give us the lowdown on business, industry,
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  Speaker 1: economics and happenings across our Stock Valley area. When it
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  Speaker 1: comes to this area, we need to be updated on
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  Speaker 1: plans as we move ahead, and of course as we
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  Speaker 1: move ahead, well, we're seeing a lot happen especially here
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  Speaker 1: in Lee County and especially here in northern Illinois with development,
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  Speaker 1: business development, and that's great for our Sock Valley area. Tom,
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  Speaker 1: we wanted to first give the report of the Gateway
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  Speaker 1: expansion project. Of course, give the latest report. Been in
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  Speaker 1: touch with city officials obviously that have given us low
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  Speaker 1: down of what is happening in that venue. But it's
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  Speaker 1: through the Lee County Industrial Development Association that we get
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  Speaker 1: kind of deeper into the Gateway project. I see some
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  Speaker 1: new ground is being broken recently. I mean, this is
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  Speaker 1: taking place now, So give us the load out what's
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  Speaker 1: going on.
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  Speaker 2: In that area. Yeah, Steve, you're right, there's been a
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  Speaker 2: lot happening here, you know, all through town really. I
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  Speaker 2: mean you think about the number of ongoing projects that
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  Speaker 2: are some of these road projects we've got that are
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  Speaker 2: you know, pretty substantial up and down Galena, the new
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  Speaker 2: pedestrian bridge, and then of course all the activity and
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  Speaker 2: action outside at the edge of town at the Dickson
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  Speaker 2: Gateway development area. You know, sometimes it's it's kind of
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  Speaker 2: easy to forget how quickly all that has come together,
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  Speaker 2: you know, after a lot of planning, a lot of effort,
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  Speaker 2: you know, infrastructure work went into it. But we're only
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  Speaker 2: a year and a half away from when the first
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  Speaker 2: location opened there. That was the Chipotle was the first
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  Speaker 2: you know, the business to open there, and it's only
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  Speaker 2: been about a year and half, so a lot of progress,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of construction in that time. And then you're right,
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  Speaker 2: we've got earth being moved yet again on a new
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  Speaker 2: site at the very north edge, which was going to
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  Speaker 2: be another multi tenant building, so similar to like the
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  Speaker 2: building where Jersey Mikes and T Mobile is. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you've got kind of four different businesses all under under
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  Speaker 2: one roof. So we've got a new multi tenant down
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  Speaker 2: there that will be anchored by in urgent Care location
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  Speaker 2: and then a couple other tenants in that one as well.
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  Speaker 2: And then also the there's plans they're working through the
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  Speaker 2: site preparation for McDonald's location, a second McDonald's location. So
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  Speaker 2: of course we have the well loved location and the
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  Speaker 2: you know in the north side of the river. But
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  Speaker 2: you know, the idea I think here is there's quite
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  Speaker 2: a bit of interstate traffic that goes by, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: we all know the McDonald's name wherever you go around
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  Speaker 2: the country is always attracting people as you know, a
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  Speaker 2: quick convenience stop as they're passing through. And so we
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  Speaker 2: really think that's going to be there's gonna be quite
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  Speaker 2: a bit of business on that McDonald's out there. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it's kind of similar to both Rochelle and Mendota both
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  Speaker 2: have two McDonald's location downtown and one of the exits
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  Speaker 2: right both smaller communities. You know, it's it's so it's
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  Speaker 2: a it's a really I think, a kind of a
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  Speaker 2: tested and true model. But it's exciting to see that
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  Speaker 2: that kind of progress. And you know, there's only about
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  Speaker 2: three lots left out there right now in the Gateway area.
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  Speaker 2: Wo three lots left, and so we think that you know,
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  Speaker 2: there's still further interest in those lots, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll be talking about earth movement for some
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  Speaker 2: of those additional locations pretty soon here too.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Well, again, as you mentioned, Tom, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the progress continues, the growth continues, and it's interesting to see,
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  Speaker 1: especially in something like that strip mall that you talked about.
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  Speaker 1: The Jersey mix is in there, the cosmetics I believe
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  Speaker 1: there's a there's a cosmetics location, and the dispensary he
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  Speaker 1: is also in that in particular strip off. It's interesting
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  Speaker 1: to see the business types that go in to those areas.
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  Speaker 1: You know, as you mentioned, this was going to be
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  Speaker 1: anchored by another urgent care. Well, we've got Mercy Health
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  Speaker 1: and we've got you know, urgent care. But I can't
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  Speaker 1: see that being you know, a detriment to to because
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  Speaker 1: you know, it seems to me like the need is
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  Speaker 1: always there for those kinds of locations, especially the quick,
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  Speaker 1: you know, quick medical care locations.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think those are you know, across the country,
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  Speaker 2: you're seeing a lot of those being built in. I
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  Speaker 2: think you make a good point about starting to think
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  Speaker 2: about what types of businesses will go into these because
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  Speaker 2: you know now that when it was just completely open,
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  Speaker 2: you sort of didn't have any competition, no direct competition.
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  Speaker 2: But now that you've got you know, you've got a Chipotle,
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  Speaker 2: got a Jersey Mics. You're not going to open another
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  Speaker 2: sandwich shop right, you know, next to it. So McDonald's
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  Speaker 2: a little bit different category than that. But you start
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  Speaker 2: to kind of think through, Okay, well we've got a
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've got one of these locations. We've got
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  Speaker 2: one of those locations. What's left? What are the gaps
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  Speaker 2: that remain? That's how you know, these real estate brokers
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  Speaker 2: and developers from the outside are look looking at it.
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  Speaker 2: They kind of have that list of you know, you
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  Speaker 2: get a place to get coffee. Okay, we got one
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  Speaker 2: of those you know, you need a place to fill
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  Speaker 2: up your tank with gas. A couple options there, got those.
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  Speaker 2: So it's it's interesting as progress continues, you start to
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  Speaker 2: sort of address a lot of those needs and and
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  Speaker 2: what remains there's you know, fewer gaps now.
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  Speaker 1: Chatting with your with you being the executive director of
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  Speaker 1: the director of the Lee County Industrial Development Association, obviously
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  Speaker 1: you play a part in this. I mean, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you know, you're you're you're along with the
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  Speaker 1: you know, the officials, you know, and doing all this
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  Speaker 1: planning and doing this present. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: One of the one of the best advantages I think
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  Speaker 2: we have in Dixon is that we really kind of
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  Speaker 2: have a development team that we come come to the
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  Speaker 2: table with. So you know, if you're somebody who wants
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  Speaker 2: to come to town and do business in Dixon, you
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  Speaker 2: don't have to go have five different meetings with five
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  Speaker 2: different organizations. You know, the City, the Chamber, Commerce, main
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  Speaker 2: Street Discovered Dixon, l C, I, d A. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we've got the building officials come in, we have the
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  Speaker 2: utility folks come in, right the city manager, the mayor,
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  Speaker 2: you know, some members of the council. You really kind
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  Speaker 2: of get the you get the clear message that we're
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  Speaker 2: all pulling the same direction and that we're all going
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  Speaker 2: to work together and try to make it easy on
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  Speaker 2: people who want to do business here. So it's you know,
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  Speaker 2: we hear a lot that Dixon is a really remarkably
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  Speaker 2: easy place to do business. It's a little bit of
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  Speaker 2: a surprise us because if you think, well, what are
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  Speaker 2: other communities doing. Yeah, the reality is it's it's hard
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  Speaker 2: at some places. You feel like you're chasing all over
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  Speaker 2: the place, and other locations.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and and the connotation like like I mentioned, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the Lee County Industrial Development Association, you know we're we're
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  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously Dixon is the hub of Lee County,
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  Speaker 1: but we're northernly County. Lee County is a very large
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  Speaker 1: county in Illinois. It's a lot of area, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to take in. You know, when we're talking about business expansion,
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  Speaker 1: business growth, Yeah, we can concentrate on our local area,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, your team has a lot of area
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  Speaker 1: to cover.
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  Speaker 2: We do. And you know, that's one of the interesting
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  Speaker 2: things too, is when you're looking at of course, you
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  Speaker 2: know a place like a McDonald's is going to go
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  Speaker 2: to a very high traffic location. So they're looking at
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  Speaker 2: a map, you know, where's the most number of cars
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  Speaker 2: that drive by. But other business types want to go
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  Speaker 2: in different locations. So we get you know, certainly an
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  Speaker 2: industrial project. And sometimes I would say, I don't I
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  Speaker 2: don't want to be near houses, right, Maybe it's loud,
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  Speaker 2: maybe there's you know, lights at night, or trucks coming
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  Speaker 2: in and out, you know, things like that. They want
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  Speaker 2: to be further away, or they need a big piece
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  Speaker 2: of land, and so they can't really be, you know,
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  Speaker 2: next to a population center. So we have we do work,
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  Speaker 2: you know, up and down the A lot of times
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  Speaker 2: it kind of follows highways naturally. You know, people need
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  Speaker 2: to get goods in and out, so up and down
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  Speaker 2: eighty eight, up and down I thirty nine, Route thirty
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  Speaker 2: around fifty two. You know, you kind of start to
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  Speaker 2: piece some of those together, and I say, okay, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in this location, we've got one hundred acres. We you know,
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  Speaker 2: we got water service out there, we got power out there.
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  Speaker 2: You know, those are the kind of sites that we
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  Speaker 2: look at. But you're right, those that there's a lot
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  Speaker 2: more than just the Dixon locations. Even though this is
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  Speaker 2: where there's just the kind of the volume, the concentration
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  Speaker 2: of people and traffic.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, you because you mentioned a couple of interesting roadways,
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  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I eighty eight obviously is the most familiar,
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  Speaker 1: obviously because it passes right through our neck of the woods.
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  Speaker 1: But I thirty nine also goes through a section of
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  Speaker 1: Lee County. I thirty nine, you know, in eastern Lee
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  Speaker 1: County also runs that area, and there are a couple
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  Speaker 1: of exits you know, in Lee County off of I
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine that you know. I'm sure you guys are
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  Speaker 1: always looking at your time.
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  Speaker 2: We are, and that's a good point with I thirty nine.
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  Speaker 2: There's a few exits in Lee County. I eighty eight.
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  Speaker 2: The only exit is dick Side, Yeah exactly, so you're
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  Speaker 2: in Whiteside or in Ogle the two exits on either side.
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  Speaker 2: But we also we pay a lot of attention on
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  Speaker 2: the I thirty nine side to how traffic flows up
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  Speaker 2: from I thirty nine into Rochelle, into the industrial development
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  Speaker 2: area in Rochelle, and today a lot of that traffic
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  Speaker 2: is going through the village of Stewart because that's the
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  Speaker 2: there's a that's the closest I thirty nine exit to
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  Speaker 2: come through the village of Stewart and then up from
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  Speaker 2: the south into Rochelle's Industrial Park. So we've been working
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  Speaker 2: quite a bit with county officials, state officials. We're conducting
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  Speaker 2: a study right now to determine how we can improve
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  Speaker 2: the safety and the time of flow through that area.
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  Speaker 2: And the study is actually recommending that we relocate the
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  Speaker 2: I thirty nine exit so you don't have to go
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  Speaker 2: through downtown Stewart in order to feed in to an
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  Speaker 2: area that you know, we're also very aggressively pushing for
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  Speaker 2: industrial development. We call it the Dual rail Megasite, and
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  Speaker 2: it's about one thousand acres of land in Lee County
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  Speaker 2: that sits right at the county line and it would
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  Speaker 2: be served by the City of Rochelle Railroad and City
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  Speaker 2: of Rochelle Utilities. And it's been a very attractive place
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  Speaker 2: for a lot of developers. Just last week we had
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  Speaker 2: another site visit from a group that's potentially going to
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: do a development there. But we're thinking, you know, you
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  Speaker 2: have to think farther ahead on this and not wait
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  Speaker 2: until the situation is right at hand. And so we say, okay,
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  Speaker 2: what can we do to plan for if we got
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  Speaker 2: a large project there? That was going to generate a
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  Speaker 2: lot of truck traffic. What can we do to make
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  Speaker 2: sure that, you know, we're not we're not diminishing the
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  Speaker 2: quality life and steward, We're not putting people, you know,
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  Speaker 2: at a safety risk for a significant number of additional
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  Speaker 2: trucks coming through the village you know, wear and tear
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  Speaker 2: on the roads, things like that. So we're trying to
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  Speaker 2: think a little bit, a couple steps ahead to be
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  Speaker 2: ready for the time when it comes.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, you know, it's planning ahead and again moving forward.
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  Speaker 1: That's key. As you mentioned Tom in your you know,
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  Speaker 1: developing our area. Denmer joins us for an update business
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and industry and economics and biz. You know, as far
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  Speaker 1: as expansion is concerned, Tom has told us about the
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  Speaker 1: Gateway project and the continuing expansion. There lots of new well,
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  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Tom, this pretty much takes care then
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of the Gateway area. Once we get these new projects complete, then.
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  Speaker 2: We just have a couple spots left. So it's exciting
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  Speaker 2: to see what we kind of fit in the last
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  Speaker 2: little remaining areas.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, he said, in a year and
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  Speaker 1: a half, just a year and a half and here
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  Speaker 1: we are sitting with almost everything complete in that area
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  Speaker 1: like we designed it like we wanted, you know.
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  Speaker 2: And it helps to build momentum too, you know, increase
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  Speaker 2: traffic counts, more folks are coming in from other communities,
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  Speaker 2: so I think it helps kind of feed on itself.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. And you talked about the industrial projects, the
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: industrial sites as well, you know, anything else to add
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  Speaker 1: in that regards, Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: You know, one of the great programs that we're now
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  Speaker 2: a part of locally here is at the state level,
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  Speaker 2: there's a group called Intersect Illinois and it's a public
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: private partnership, So the State of Illinois is part of it,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: and then many private organizations for economic development are part
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  Speaker 2: of it, and they go around the country and around
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: the world promoting Illinois locations. So they go to trade shows, conventions,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: they go on foreign trade missions, things like that. And
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: they launched a program called the Vetted Sites in this
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: shi and this was basically trying to understand what sites
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: we have in Illinois and what are the characteristics of them.
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  Speaker 2: You know, how much do you have water, do you
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  Speaker 2: have power? Do you have natural gas there? Do you
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  Speaker 2: have truck routes, do you have railroad? All those kinds
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  Speaker 2: of things that industrial projects want to see, and so
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  Speaker 2: they go through the they vetted these sites. They went
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: through the score sheets and the checklist, and they said,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to select certain sites in Illinois that we're
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: going to include in our Vetted Sites program, and then
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  Speaker 2: INTERSECT is going to promote those sites through paid advertisements,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: through placements in trade publications, you know, things that are
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: specific towards site selectors, developers, corporate real estate folks, and
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  Speaker 2: we were actually included. There are three locations in Lee
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  Speaker 2: County that are on this list. So in the entire
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  Speaker 2: state of Illinois, there's only thirty six locations, and three
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  Speaker 2: of them are right here in Lee County. So one
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  Speaker 2: of them is the dual rail megasite south through Ochelle
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  Speaker 2: we talked about. And then we have two sites here
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  Speaker 2: in Dixon. One is there's about a two hundred and
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  Speaker 2: twenty acre parcel on the south side of Bloody Gultch
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Road behind Road Ranger, so between Bloody Gulch and I
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  Speaker 2: eighty eight. And the second site then is in the
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  Speaker 2: Lee County Business Park, the Dixon Industrial Park. Yes, so
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  Speaker 2: we have about two hundred and twenty acres there as well.
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  Speaker 2: That is kind of at the the eastern edge of
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  Speaker 2: where the park is today, so the existing infrastructure of
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: the roads that come into the park, they they end
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  Speaker 2: at this two hundred and twenty acre area that also
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  Speaker 2: happens to be the industrial park Tiff District at the
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: City of Dixon created. And so there's a couple pieces
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  Speaker 2: that are coming together really nicely on those but it's
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: a great it's a great program. In fact, they're they're
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: just now sent out a notice they're going to send
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: out a drone pilot to do video images of all
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: these sites. So they want to try to update, you know,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: get some video, get some get some photographs so they
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: can include in their marketing materials. And all of this
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: comes at no cost to us or to the local
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: landowners or anybody. This is all being paid foreign funded
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: at the state level in order to promote kind of
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: some of the best sites in the state. When they
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: go to some of these conferences, they don't want to
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: tell you, well, we got a bunch of layan ind
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: but there's nothing there.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: They want to be able to come and say we're ready,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: you can start digging your project tomorrow. And so the
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: three of those sites are here and I think that's
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: a really great tribute to our area.
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  Speaker 1: And you mentioned Tom, you know, people just don't think
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: about this. You know, you have to have the utilities,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: you have to have all of those you know, utilities included.
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  Speaker 1: It's not just putting up a roof and a building
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: that's going to get it done. You've got to got
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: to have all of the you know, connections as well.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So that's important.
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  Speaker 2: It's very very important. Yeah, And that's actually one of
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: the grants that we're going to be working on in
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  Speaker 2: this upcoming year is the state has a grant called
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: the Site Readiness Grants, and it tries to take sites
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: that are really close to being perfect, really close to
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: being ideal, and says, well, what are some of the
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: things if we could do one or two improvements that
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: could really put us over the edge, what would those be?
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  Speaker 2: And so we're we've been in a conversation about pursuing
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: a grant for the Dixon Industrial Park to try to
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: potentially improve some of our electrical utilities there, so to
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: increase the capacity of what we could serve in that site,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: or to prepare us to be able to do that
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: in you know quicker, you know, at the five yard
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: line instead the twenty yard line, you know, just get
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: ourselves in there. But we're we're looking at that and saying,
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: you know, what would it be. What kind of investment
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: could we make that would make those sites really really
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: attractive and kind of immediately ready to go. And so
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: that grant, we expect it was just authorized in this
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: new state fiscal year. We expect that grant we should
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: open up perhaps this fall or maybe in the early
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: part of the of the next calendar year, and we
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: want to be ready to apply for that to make
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: sure we're attracting some additional dollars here that would make
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: this industrial park one of the best in the state.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And save again the cost to anybody else in you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: trying to make these.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Both the cost and the time. On a lot of
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: these projects, we're seeing that the lead times, you know is, boy,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: you can come in here, but it's going to take
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: us two or three years to get things ready for you.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Folks don't want to hear that. They you know, they
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: want to they want to be building yesterday, and so
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: anything we can do to make ourselves, you know, that
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: close that much closer to being shovel ready, I think
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: is a good thing.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: And speaking of grants, since we're talking about grants, now
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: you have another one to make some improvements in the
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: county as well.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the Strong Communities Grant. This was a
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: grant that was a joint effort between the Lee County
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: and the City of Dixon to apply for grant funding
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: to help with some abandoned or kind of condemned house houses,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: so things that are not really safe anymore. Try to
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: do demolition and bring those lots back to being able
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: to be redeveloped, whether it's for a new house to
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: be put on there, whether it's for you know, other
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: kind of kind of coordinated redevelopment. But we've been working
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: closely with the city and the county on that where
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: identifying specific properties. The city has taken possession of a
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: couple of properties when we as l C I. D
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: A have possession of a couple of properties that will
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: be part of this grants and it really just helps
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: to do some of that. You know, having a having
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: a house like that that's fallen in on itself is dangerous.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: It brings down the whole neighborhood, you know, having that
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: that kind of thing, and so we're really optimistic about
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: this opportunity to get some funding to kind of wipe
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: the slate slate clean and you know, start fresh again.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: And so we'll be seeing that grant be processed. It's
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: already been awarded. We'll see that grant be processed in
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: the in the near future and start to take down
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: some of those you know, safety issues and hopefully get
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: some redevelopment sparked.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And you know, that's all always a key, as you mentioned,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: redeveloping you know, existing lands, existing properties, and again getting
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: them back into shape so that we can make the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: offer again. Uh, you know, as far as more business
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and more industry is concerned, anything else on the burner.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: You know, we've been we've had a couple of site
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: visits in the last couple of weeks for projects that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: are looking at sites in Lee County. So you know,
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: we always kind of go through that. There's a big funnel.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: You know, you get a lot of projects on this
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: top top end, get a lot of people who's put
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: out feelers, and then you try to work your way
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: down so you have follow up conversations, you have meetings.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Ideally you get the group to actually come out here
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: and visit us in person, and so we had a
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: couple of those site visits in the last week. But yeah,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: I think we're always sort of working through that pipeline
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: of attracting people to come in and then trying to
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: close the deal when they when they get here and
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: you know, bring in some of those new jobs, the
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: new investments, things that will help our community grow.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and we should probably throw in the We didn't
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: mention the Fairfield in we did talk about that off air.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: They're getting ready to open their doors.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that, you know, within a couple of
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: months they'll be open too, so another great great tenant
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: there and bringing people into the community you know, to
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: get them to stay here overnight. Hopefully once they come
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: they never want to leave.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: It's always fun talking with Tom about all of the business,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the new business that we're seeing, the business expansion. And
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: this just not takes in Dixon. This takes in into
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: the entire League County area, so that area, you know,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: near the Illinois area being developed on and worked upon
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: as far as new industry and new business is concerned.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: It's always fun having the connection with Tom and our
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: friends from the Lee County Industrial Development Association to again
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: give us the inWORD right here at Wikeson. We thank
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you so very much, sure for joining us today. Unfortunately
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: we're out of time, but we'll find more visits down
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the line with you.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: From I'll have good news to share then too.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Tom Denver from the Lee County Industrial Development Association, thanks
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: for joining us.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: See that's our talk line for today here at wison