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Show MILFORD (UTAH) NEWS THURSDAY, AUG. 26. 1954 lot of stock, nowadays, in SITE SLEUTHS whether a town will be liked as a p ace to live In by executives and technicians brought In ARE LOOKING to run the plant and train local workers. Hence many big companies send teams of "site US OVER! sleuths" out to take a look. These investigators strike up seemingly casual conversations, (This is the final article In around the high school, pojee series of, stories dealing with ( browse through back files of of diversification industry, t and possibility of obtaining papers, and generally scrutinize stores, homes and recreational factories in local communifacilities. Their report may ties. The articles are by or break your town in its make Donald S. Stroetrel and first were pubnsned in " xown ambition to get a new indusrty with a fat payroll. Yet you'll Journal.) probab'y never know you've Three men in inconspicuous ' been looked over. dark suits got off an airliner in Before leaving their home ofa large West Coast city, one fices the. site sleuths empty morning not too long ago, and their pockets of company dairquickly stepped into a drive-it- j ies, company pencils, or anyyourself Chevrolet. Two hours else that stamight give them thing a later they pulled into gas tion ri a town of 4500 popula- away. "I even rip out labels tion. The driver; leaning out from auiui I bought In Schenecthe- window, struck up a con- - ' tady, N. Y,," says Ceneral Elecve'rsation with the pump attend-- tee's Robert Pfenning. ant. Similarly, because enterpris"Seems like a nice town you j ing chambers of commerce have have here. How Is it as a place been known to trace license plates. Pfenning uses a rented to live?" car. When he needs to ap"Like it fine," the a town engineer or local proach attendant said, wiping the official for ancompany power windshield. The two visited for , to swers technical questions, he a couple of minutes. The boy didn't know it, and never will, generally poses as a "representrealty but that was a $4 million con- ative of an versation!. The three strangers company." The du Pont company sleuth, were quietly siting up the town F. E. LeVan, is usually a "railmilas a possible site for a $4 man." road sroes a lion factory thine that There are good reasons for on in hundreds of towns every this month. approach. town one of Your be may only Back East, at the home office, considered being many (duPont on the town had appear charts and "topo" maps to meet all looked at 87 sites before build dollar the technical requirements, ing itsplant near Klnston, N. plenty of raw materials nearno to wants and C), company by. Not far from market. Good and then get hopes your up rail and truck service. Enough labor. Several good tracts of let you down. Also, premature land with gentle slope drainage. disclosures will tip off competBut some things don't show up itors and will invite land specin statistics or even aerial ulation. How would our town stand up the- - whole "human photos a site sleuth's scrutiny? under inside" of the picture, for stance. Management puts a Assuming It meets a company's technical needs, would It qualify as a town new people would "like to live in?" The THE fiULFORD NEWS question may be with you soon, If not now Industry, expanding at a $2 billion a month clip, Published Every Thursdajr g is showing an Entered in the post office at interest in small - community MiLford. Utah, as second clasa sites. mail matter under the Act of factory Here are some of the things Congress of 1879 manufacturers told us they look at: Utah Adv. Representative! Utah Stat Press Association Komti and garden. "The Salt taka City man who nurses his lawn would probably nurse a factory $3.00 A Yaar In A'ranc machine. Pride's contagious." 8. A. Williams Editor-PublishGood shopping. "Our people r Patricia Williams .... Bus. Mgr will expect stores, I ( - 1 J either in town or within easy driving distance." , tion workers will want a place to live whi.e building the plant. And some of our supervisors will want to rent not buy. We move 'em around the country." Churches and Schools. "Are major denominations represented? Has school construction kept pace with the kid population? A good vocational training department in the high school impresses us. We'.l want to work out a cooperative pro- gram to train workers." Recreation. "Is there more titan Just a pool hall and movie house? We look for community swimming pools, parks and recreational programs. If a town has a recreation director that's a big plus." Television. It may seem like a little thing, but some of our people resent moving from a good TV area to one p agued " (Some by static and towns have licked this problem with tower'ng community anwell-planne- d fade-outs.- tennas). Good newspaper "always a sign of a progressive, lively town." Hotel. "Would visiting executives like the rooms? Sometimes our company will build a hotel where none exists, but important social and economic paid 6 for 12 years, then sold v tuecus. JurawDerries are nowAtne mam ana uismuui our fair snare, but we re wary of towns with high bonded indebtedness. On the other hand, we once rejected a site because taxes were loo low we didn't feel they could support the needed public services." Welcome Mat. Does the town really want new industry? "We .ike a town with a planning board and land zoned for Industry or a local industrial com--1 1 1 e e aggressively seeking new plants." Don't be dismayed if cyour town doesn't measure up right now maybe it could. Industrial development specialists say most companies take to an organized community improvement program as a hungry bear to honey. One town we know of (London, Ky., pop. 3426) has snagged six new industries as the result of a community improvement blitz launched by businessmen and nearby farmers in 1949. In the first year of the drive they sparked 115 projects! Some, like the $63,000 health center, new airport, and a program to stimluate strawberry growing in surrounding Laruel county, will continue to have to require a new food process- the other hand; Rich Hill, Mo., ing plant expected to bring in is still looking for a tenant for $250,000 a year! its booster-buil- t factory, tdle now. months for can town be Any "right" for some company and some prod Industrial developent specla-ist- s uct. Some "footloose" indusfrom we prefer hot to. m tries can locate almost anyof where. A manufacturer gunsights, for example, would fit in that category. So would many assembly plants. A re-study showed that 30 put of 116 new factories came; to Colorado merely "because (the owners wanted to live in the i Rocky Mountains." Competition betwaen towns for new industries is intense. Texarkana, Tex., recently offered $10,000 to "anyone supplying information leading to the establishment of an industry employing 500 or more." Some towns offer temporary freedom, from taxes or free land. Others set up industrial foundations or corporations capitalized by sale of stock lo-c-a ly to build the factories themselves. Thus, the Incoming manufacturer pays rent, doesn't have to tie up capital in a building. Sometimes stockholders make out handsomely (one New England foundation generally shy away subsidies; they say imagination and hard work snare factories just as well. That was how Lawrencf, Kan., for example, got a new fertilizer factory. "Our feed stores sell a lot of commercial fertilizer," a Lawrence businessman had noted. "Wouldn't it be cheaper to mix it right here in town?" And why not? Chamber Commerce Manager C. R. (Buzz) Zook found there'd be a saving in transportation cost. He checked the sources of raw materials they were close enough to make the idea worthwhile. The Kansas Board of Agriculture supplied figures on the area's use of ferti.izer. rence is richer by a $100,000 a year payroll. .A her7ownonAa raiirpaa. line within 50 to 100 miles could have landed that p ant just by the kind of imagination and research Lawrence used. No question about it, salesmanship helps. Town Journal's recent survey of 1,000 mayors of towns proved this dramatically: jnore than half of the factories reported as new since 1947 had come in as "a result of active promotion by local people." Generally, you can get help from your utility company, railroad, state chamber of commerce. You'll want to read everything you can on the science (and it is a science) of persuading new factories to come in and encouragTfig homegrown factories. Two key sources are "The Community Industrial De-v- e opment Survey," 50c at of Manufacture, Chamber of Commerce of the United States, Washington 6, D. C; and "Basic Industrial Location Factors," 25c, from Supt of Documents, Washington 25, Jlit well-directe- d -- De-partm- Out went letters to a dozen fertilizer manufacturers whose names had been furnished by D. C. Is Milford interested in oblocal feed dealers. Each was told, with facts, how he could taining an industry or factory? cut costs in Lawrence. Within To Buy or Seh, use a News six weeks, one manufacturer started construction and 'Law Want-Ad- . n out-of-tow- Second Annual Junior Farmer 1 cloak-and-dagg- er multi-millio- Da-cra- n mm mm 11 ever-increasin- er well-stocke- tl7 v V n3 x" 1 S-T-O- .LalbdDF ! -P BEFORE YOU BUY A NEW CAR... GET COMPLETE DETAILS ON A REALLY EASY. REALLY ECONOMICAL MEANS OF FINANCING t Pay EIGHT FEATUR: RACES A BANK AUTO LOAN rROM Horses Must be Entered by Thursday, Sept. 2nd us ... 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