Great Lakes Bay Region, Now Including Isabella, Should Boost Export Markets
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The fact that Isabella County now is officially a part of the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance (GLBRA) has made the news globally.
An article on the addition of Isabella to the alliance of Bay, Midland and Saginaw, is now posted on World Casino Directory, a website incorporating information from Mt. Pleasant's Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort.
That got us to thinking: If we can promote the casino worldwide, why not the products made in the region?
The wide variety of goods made here can join the agricultural products like beans that do have world markets accessed by water.
GLBRA's website says the region aims for leadership in health care, advanced manufacturing, science and technology and alternative energy.
Now that we have the clout produced by regional collaboration and a flow of funding from increased hotel-motel room taxes, are we going to be content with the status quo?
The GLBRA tourism initiative under leadership of Annette Rummel has linked with the Pure Michigan national advertising campaign and should eventually pay big dividends.
Over the past decade that this column has been appearing on MyBayCity.com, we have continually urged the wider view. Why shouldn't this region be a major outbound shipping port? And perhaps an inbound trade could be developed that could serve Michigan and Wisconsin and perhaps Ohio.
Trucks coming here or leaving from here would have a shorter haul than those coming from or going to Montreal or New York.
The Saginaw River port is ranked second to Detroit for inbound products, mainly coal, stone and salt. But the idea of outbound shipping offers a highway to world markets envisioned when the Seaway opened but never realized.
The one area where this region might find traction is not yet recognized, although almost every other port on the Great Lakes has signed on to short sea shipping and other innovations to boost their economies and employment.
Only a handful of foreign ships have visited the Saginaw River port since the 1960s when containerization began to dominate and goods mainly flowed into major ports like Montreal and New York.
St. Lawrence Seaway promoters lately have touted the concept of "short sea shipping" -- using ships calling Great Lakes ports more extensively. The goal is to reduce the volume of heavy trucks that is more costly because it destroys roads and bridges and clogs traffic for passenger cars.
Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, S.C. Johnson, Bay Cast and other companies already have a global sales view and in some cases manufacturing sites. This is an economic arena that has been too long neglected by other companies and interests.
The Great Lakes Short Sea Shipping Enhancement Act of 2007 (H.R. 981) was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) and Rep. Phil English (R-PA). Both legislators are members of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax policy. An identical companion bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and Senator George Voinovich (R-OH).
The bills would provide a narrow exemption to the Harbor Maintenance Tax for the movement of non-bulk commercial cargo by water in the Great Lakes region. This includes the movement of freight and people between U.S. ports on the Great Lakes and between Canadian and U.S. ports on the Great Lakes. The exemption does not include any other region of the country.
Great Lakes shippers say the legislation should create a win-win situation for the public and private sectors in the following ways:
the legislation should clear the way for new shipping services to be offered on the Great Lakes, creating jobs in the maritime sector;
such new shipping services will offer trucks alternatives to congested highways and enable commerce to flow more efficiently relieving highway congestion should reduce the amount of wear and tear on the region's roads;
diverting trucks off congested highways will reduce air emissions and improve air quality; such new shipping services would be "local" (typically within a single lake) and would not contribute to the introduction of foreign aquatic invasive species.
The GLBRA approved addition of Isabella County as a new member of the collaboration in a unanimous vote by 35 board members earlier this year, said Terry Moore, the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance president.
"Isabella County has great leadership and character and is a great fit with the alliance," Mr. Moore told Jessica Fecteau of the CMU Life student newspaper.
Lisa Hadden, president and CEO of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, said the county's attractions pull a large crowd from not only the area, but statewide as well.
"This alliance has realized the value of collaborating based on the regional reach of the College of Medicine at CMU, the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort and having a consistently low unemployment rate," Ms. Hadden said.
She added that Isabella County complements the Great Lakes Bay region's high level of technology and advanced medical care, education, tourism, hospitality and manufacturing.
"There are so many people that cross Midland, Bay, Saginaw and Isabella County boundaries for work, entertainment, and recreation," Hadden said. "Hundreds of people drive M-20 everyday from Midland to Mount Pleasant and vice versa to work at Dow or teach at CMU."
Sheril Tarrant, program director at the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance, said over 220 people including investors, community leaders and ambassadors discussed alliance progress at an update event in June at the Midland Center for the Arts.
Moore said the alliance strengthens each county's ability to compete against outside businesses and broadens their base.
Isabella County will benefit from the other counties' expertise and knowledge that they all share with each other, Moore said. Mount Pleasant will also gain more awareness because of the engaged relationship of Dow Chemical representatives.
In order to add Isabella County, Moore noted the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance will soon be changing their logo and branding their alliance that is now four years and four counties in the making.
We have another idea: set the new logo on an image of the globe and think more globally as well as regionally.
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