City of Enid and Garfield County officials have not always seen eye to eye over the years.

Issues such as the county jail and the rural fire tax are a couple of examples of city-county differences.

But economic development, officials say, is one area in which the city and county are working together.

The Enid/Garfield County Development Alliance was formed in the late 1990s.

“We knew that we needed to have a cooperative effort among several organizations in the economic development arena,” said Jon Blankenship, executive director of the alliance as well as president and chief executive officer of the Greater Enid Chamber of Commerce.

Funding for the alliance is split among various sources. One-third comes from the Garfield County Industrial Authority, one-third comes from the city of Enid and one-third from participating companies.

The money from the city of Enid goes into an incentive fund for use in attracting new employers.

Membership in the alliance includes representatives from the chamber, the city of Enid, the industrial authority and participating companies, as well as three at-large members. There are 30 participating companies, and the alliance has a nine-member board of directors.

“We’ve got participation, involvement and interface from numerous organizations that are involved in economic development,” said Blankenship.

Garfield County Industrial Authority, chartered in 1969, has authority to promote economic development in the county through the use of tax-free financing.

The GCIA’s nine-member board is appointed by the Garfield County Commission.

Among the companies helped over the years by the GCIA were Great Lakes Carbon, W.B. Johnston Grain, Advance Food Co., StarTek and Atwoods. The GCIA has developed a fund for use in economic development.

“That gives the county a role along with the city and private companies,” said John Loewen, director of Garfield County Industrial Develop-ment Authority.

The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round was a dark cloud on Enid’s horizon, until the round ended with Vance Air Force Base not only spared, but slated to grow. Now it’s time for the city and county to turn their full attention to economic development, Blankenship said.

“If there’s any great example of what we can accomplish with everybody working in the same direction, it is what this community and what this county were able to achieve in regard to Vance Air Force Base,” he said. “I think we need to take a similar approach in the economic development arena.”

Job growth is as important to other communities in Garfield County as it is to Enid, said Loewen, former president of a Garber bank that at one time was seventh-largest agriculture lender in the nation.

“I kept seeing, out in these rural areas, that jobs were still the key,” said Loewen. “It didn’t make any difference how much money we could put out in the ag field, we weren’t providing jobs. Without these jobs, pretty soon your county population dries up.”

The alliance’s role in economic development is two-fold, said board chairman Brud Baker.

“It is coordinative and focused, both,” he said. “It’s coordinative in the sense it was an attempt by everybody involved to put all the various entities that might be involved in economic development into one room. It’s focused in the sense it is aimed at private sector jobs, pretty much exclusively.”

The focus, Blankenship said, should be wider than simply Enid and Garfield County.

“We need to be looking regionally to make sure that we add people in our trade area, add population,” said Blankenship.

The approach to economic development is two-fold, both recruiting new businesses and retaining and helping existing businesses to grow, said Blankenship.

“I think you have to be involved in both,” said Blankenship, “but it certainly starts at home.”

He pointed to successful local businesses like Advance Food, Continental Resources and Atwoods.

“We couldn’t have envisioned 20 years ago we’d be the chicken fried steak capital of the world with Advance Food Co.,” said Blankenship. “We’ve had stable companies that have grown over the years and have been critical to Enid’s economic development.

“But we’ve also got to be looking for new opportunities, as difficult as it is to recruit companies.”

“In the smaller communities it’s almost impossible to recruit a business from outside unless it’s a very high-risk enterprise,” said Loewen. “Almost all growth you’ll see in those communities is from entrepreneurs within their community and growing businesses that are already there.”

Another key to economic development, Blankenship said, is improving the local entrepreneurial climate.

“You don’t tell people how to do it,” said Blankenship, “you let entrepreneurs stay ahead of the technology curve and determine the areas where they want to try to grow businesses. It’s government’s role to steer clear or try to facilitate those projects with local incentives.”

“We want to create an environment that’s really positive towards either the growing of an existing business or the creation of a new business,” said Baker. “Entrepreneurs, free market people, require a fairly flexible approach.”