An Economic Vision for Jefferson County

April 2006

My vision for Jefferson County is that its economic development be done not by bricks and mortar, (or vinyl siding and concrete, in today's actuality), but by a logistics revolution among organizations that previously did not communicate, the technology & information systems needed to make those networks function optimally, and management innovations that keep carving new ways of doing things better with fewer investments of materials.  We can no longer sprawl outward with yesterday's growth models, but need to go upward both physically in our architecture, and organizationally. And we need to recognize the physical limitations of our environment and natural resource base and respond accordingly; with frugality and long term planning.

Let us look to the most forward thinking of the corporations out there – SeaLand/CSX, for one -- that understands that it is not enough to react to change, but to create the change it can prosper from.  SeaLand moves its packages around this country faster than it ever has, and it hasn’t done this by adding to its fleet of planes and trucks and vans. It simply realigned itself from using strictly its own assets, to a focus on the quality to the user – regardless of whose assets were being used. By forming alliances with other servers, where there was once strict turf-protection, they are providing better service to their customers with less capital investment of their own.

• Jefferson County’s governments, schools, organizations, and corporations need to be forming these kinds of alliances that get jobs that need being done, done, without there being a huge expenditure. For instance, is there a way to integrate school bus and public transportation services in and between our communities? If we figure out a way, then we can package the software, the management techniques, the marketing campaigns that made it happen. These are the jobs that are high paying, in demand, and stable for the foreseeable future.

 Since 1992, Sweden has carved niches for itself on the world stage by exporting expertise on how to adapt to a changing world -- how to decrease dependence on resources that are either growing scarce or are bound up in such power struggles that their extraction comes at a deadly cost to human life and world stability.  If  you factor in the cost of the war in Iraq, then is wind power really more expensive than oil?  Really?  No, it can't be and it isn't.  Why can’t Wisconsin be the Sweden of the Midwest? And if Wisconsin is to be such, why can’t Jefferson County be Wisconsin’s green brain & incubator. There is huge economic and social potential in being the green capital of Wisconsin.

Production was the capital generator of the 19 th and 20 th centuries and has brought us to the brink of, (or arguably, over the brink of) environmental collapse. Production, except for that which provides the necessities for life under a new energy & environmental reality, is not the sustainable answer to employment that leads to societal stability. Do we continue to bulldoze and mine our way into resource depletion, a toxified environment, with cancer for every child (but we can buy their comforting stuffed animals cheaper than ever!) Or do we accept that the need for change is here, now, here, now, in Wisconsin, now.

Who is going to lead Wisconsin through this door of economic opportunity?  Jefferson County can. If we get wind turbines built, PDR programs in place in time to save farmland for the future, methane digesters on the farms and landfills, LEED-certified public buildings erected, solar panels on the roofs, solar arrays in some fields, a living machine wastewater treatment center created, etc. we can start exporting the management systems -- for government, for business, for partnerships in the public-private sector that made these things happen. Vermont seems to get this; California seems to get this; the window for opportunity of being a leader is closing for Wisconsin unless one of our economic development organizations grabs the bull by the horns.

Conservation, cooperation, and innovation are the growth models of the 21 st century. They have to be or we perish with $20 bills in our $10-pants pockets, intent on our own narrow visions. Or worse, we perish fighting wars to preserve a status quo that is unsustainable anyway.

While the city of Jefferson builds its cathedral to mediocrity, my vision is for our other cities, towns, and villages to open a real door to economic opportunity in Jefferson County. And offer some hope to the next generation that is predicated upon the proposition of environmental justice, life and happiness.

Sincerely,

Beth Gehred
Fort Atkinson