By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LONOKE — Ground work done at the local level strengthens the statewide effort to recruit jobs, Gov. Mike Beebe told officials here today.

The governor praised Lonoke County civic, education and business leaders for their work in drafting their own economic development program.

“Lonoke County was really on the cutting edge of responding to what we really called on everyone to do,” Beebe told more than 50 local leaders who joined him at Lonoke High School for the latest in the governor’s series of education and economic development meetings around the state.

Last year, Beebe hosted the first Governor’s Summit on Education and Economic Development and encouraged the more 1,400 business and government leaders to go back to their local communities and develop their own unique, economic development plans.

Since that summit in Little Rock, the governor has traveled to 21 communities across the state to promote the idea and to praise local leaders for doing their homework.

Today, he told leaders that information they are putting together, along with information from other communities, eventually will be compiled by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Then, when a business expresses interest in locating in Arkansas and lists the characteristics it is looking for in a host community, the AEDC will have comprehensive information immediately available, Beebe said.

“If we’ve got company X that decides they may want to come to Arkansas … but they don’t know where they want to come in Arkansas, they’re looking at three or four places, what do you expect me to do?” Beebe asked. “I’m going to turn it over to you. Then it’s up to the local community to separate itself from its sister communities across the state if they want to be successful.”

Ted Kalthoff, the Arkansas State University-Beebe vice chancellor who has been helping cities, school districts, civic and county leaders draft local economic development plans, said the governor’s approach could help Arkansas communities gain advantage in business recruitment.

Kalthoff said he has worked with economic development groups in five other states and often finds local communities unprepared when a business comes calling.

“When they call and they want information, they don’t want information tomorrow, they want it yesterday,” Kalthoff said in an interview. “Every county is getting themselves ready, which is what you’ve got to do.”