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Eyes on the big picture
Jan 30, 2010 (News-Topic - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Harry Whalen is an optimist. It's just his nature. Tell him the glass is half empty, and he'll counter that it's close to three-quarters full. A partly cloudy forecast actually means it will be mostly sunny.
The attitude certainly has been and will continue to be put to the test as Whalen, who has been the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission's executive director for the past four months, tackles an unemployment crisis last seen during the Great Depression.
"Many years ago, a chairman of a board asked what makes me tick," Whalen said. "I told him my reward comes from walking into a new business that we have recruited or that has expanded and seeing 100 or more people gainfully employed.
"This is a passion for me. It's not just a job. Yes, it has its challenges."
And that challenge hits Whalen, 60, in the face each day he walks into his back office at the Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce/EDC Building in Lenoir. Along a wall directly in front of his desk and computer monitor are numbers -- 16.1, 15.9 (and soon 16.7) -- that reflect the county's monthly unemployment rates for recent months.
"When I look at that, I don't see a number," Whalen said. "That represents over 6,000 individuals in this community that don't have a job. Of course, it's much higher than that because it doesn't reflect those who are under employed or are out of the work force."
In an area devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs in the furniture industry, Whalen is no stranger to working in a place that hitched its wagon to a single core market. Prior to coming to the county, Whalen represented state of Michigan's economic development efforts for eight years as it sought to diversify its employer base due to the downturn in the local automotive industry.
And it's through diversification and education that Whalen sees as the way out of the county's current plight. He points to the growth of Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, along with the creation of the Data Center Corridor in a partnership with Catawba County, as positive steps in refocusing the county's economic future.
"The greatest challenge is the diversification of Caldwell County's economy," Whalen said. "And education is the key to everything. I was at an industrial plant recently, and the manager told me 75 to 80 percent of his employees did not have a high school diploma or GED. We've got to have highly skilled individuals with a minimum of community college training."
What Whalen also wants is land. Lots of it.
Whalen and the EDC Board of Directors have been searching for an appropriate location for a new industrial park to attract the different types of businesses that other areas, such as Lincoln County, have been successful in recruiting.
"We have the opportunity to aggressively market Caldwell County," Whalen said. "We have the opportunity to get ourselves in a positive position that when this national economy turns around, we will be a winner."
Working with a 15-member EDC Board of Directors, appointed by the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners, and including a former president of Broyhill Industries and the lead operations manager for Lenoir's Google site, Whalen feels confident the county has the best and brightest in trying to fix the economic situation.
"We've got some heavyweight hitters," he said. "That demonstrates to me that the county government believes that economic development and job creation are important. We're also setting performance measures. Because at the end of the day, it's all about results."
Though the situation will not change overnight, Whalen firmly believes the county is on the right track. When asked where he thought Caldwell County would be in five years, he replied, "We're going to be a prosperous Western North Carolina community. We're all in the same lifeboat together right now. And we'll need to work as hard as we can to get to that prosperity shore.
"We've got a vision of where we want to go. And that excites me."
Spoken like a true optimist.
To see more of the News-Topic or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.newstopic.net/. Copyright (c) 2010, News-Topic, Lenoir, N.C.
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