Fallon seeks to become a rural development model

Fallon plans to create a great place to live and work with seed money for the Service and Technology Workforce Attraction Project.

"We're hoping this becomes a model for other rural communities," says Juliette Taylor, executive director of the Churchill Economic Development Authority. With grants from Nevada Commission on Economic Development, the authority seeks to get to the root of attracting a service and technology workforce.

The plan comes from Project for Public Spaces, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities. Its Web site, pps.org, explains its Great Cities Initiative, a place-based approach to revitalizing towns, cities, and regions.

The key, says Taylor, is quality of life and things to do.

When it comes to attracting a young professional workforce, she says, "They pick the place and then they pick the job."

The $74,588 grant drew matching funds of $13,162 from Churchill County and the City of Fallon. It will fund campaign-building, site visits and place-making opportunities.

The first line of attack, says Taylor, is development of events and great places, which include streetscapes. Fallon is looking at similar projects in Detroit, Tempe, Ariz., and Bellingham, Wash.

The campaign kicked off in April with a series of workshops that continues to July. The goal: pick a pilot spot within the community to develop as a great place.

Participants include downtown merchants, chamber of commerce, city and county, farmers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Truckee Carson Irrigation District, Lahontan Valley Environmental Alliance and the general public.

But even before the project began, Lahontan Valley Young Professionals formed a service group with 64 members.

Two other grants from Nevada Commission on Economic Development also fueled Churchill County's efforts.

A grant for $7,250 toward a total project budget of $14,500 taught 32 people how to make a business plan through NxLevel training.

And a grant for $107,105 funds a Military Resource and Business Gap Analysis. Consulting firm Angelou Economics got the contract to look at Hawthorne Army Depot and Naval Air Station Fallon to identify ways to get contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense. The consultants, says Taylor, did the same for military towns in Texas and North Carolina.