93
Let’s hear the story of Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry Agriculture, and the people who make it happen. Sponsored by Nebraska's Law Firm® - Rembolt Ludtke.
93
Jonathan Jank - Growing Nebraska's Communities
"If you're not growing, you're dying."
In this episode we are joined by Jonathan Jank, President & CEO of the Seward County Chamber & Development Partnership. Jonathan was recently named the 2024 Nebraska Chambers Association Professional of the Year for his work in promoting Seward County and its communities. He shares his insights on the importance of community and economic development and having a growth mindset.
Nebraska, it's not just a place, but a way of life. It's 93 counties that are home to innovative individuals, caring community, and a spirit that runs deeper than its purple story. It's a story that should be told.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to 93, the podcast. Welcome to 93, the podcast, where we talk about Nebraska, its communities, its number one industry agriculture, and the people who make it happen. I'm Mark Falson, your host for today's episode, brought to you by Nebraska's law firm, Remboldt Lutke. Seward County, Nebraska, license plate prefix 16. This county, just west of Lincoln, was named after William Seward, who was Abe Lincoln's Secretary of State. Its county seat, the city of Seward, is Nebraska's Fourth of July city and is home to a picturesque downtown that's straight out of a Hallmark movie set. In today's episode, we are joined by Jonathan Jank, president and CEO of the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership. Jonathan was recently named the 2024 Nebraska Chambers Association Professional of the Year. Also joining us is Kurth Brashier, a partner and an attorney at Rembolt Latke, who resides in Seward and works out of Rembolt Latke's Seward office many days of the week. Jonathan, Kurth, thanks for joining us. Great to be here. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:So Jonathan, give our listeners a little background on yourself and what it is you do. Sure. So Jonathan Jenk, I am the president and CEO for the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership. I have been in chamber and economic development work for almost 13 years now. And actually came to Seward a little over 20 years ago now to attend Concordia University. And as I say, they haven't kicked me out yet. It's home. Met my beautiful wife there, Rachel, and have two boys. And so yeah, and now my in-laws live next door. So we're that's handy. We're pretty committed to that place. Um but yeah, I've been in nonprofit management my whole career. Um and then actually I give credit to former state senator Mark Coulterman for asking me to consider taking on the economic development opportunity in Seward County about 13 years ago. And uh and we've kind of been going since then.
SPEAKER_01:So imagine you're getting in an elevator, perhaps a really small elevator. Maybe it's a 20-story building and you're getting in and you've got until you go from the ground level to the 20th level to give your speech, your elevator pitch about Seward and Seward County. Give us your pitch.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So Seward County is in the Lincoln metro uh area. And so that gives us access to metro amenities, but more than anything, it's a safe, close, tight-knit community and county where you know your neighbors. It's actually Seward's been ranked um one of the top safest places and best places to raise a family in the state multiple times by multiple ranking um organizations. And so you have that access to the metro, those big city amenities say you can go get sushi and a rock concert on a Tuesday, but then you can really know your neighbors. And if you look at the school districts locally, um, they're some of the best in the state. I know Seward High School was ranked one of the top 10 in the state here very recently by a U.S. News and World Report. So um it's really just a great place to raise a family.
SPEAKER_01:So Kurt, that's probably why you moved there, right? Family, good community?
SPEAKER_03:Good community. And and the reason I moved to Seward County when I took a job with Concordia University is I was under the impression I had to live there. So uh so we moved there and really enjoyed it. But it's been uh coming from Omaha and moving to Seward, if you would have asked me, I never would have imagined living in a town of 7,000 people, but it has been a great blessing for our family, and it is a great community. It's just it's a giant neighborhood in these smaller communities in Nebraska, and uh really fortunate to be there. So and growing, and and that's one of the benefits of Seward County, and Jonathan has been a huge part of this, is growing uh amongst the counties out there in rural Nebraska who may not be.
SPEAKER_01:So, how many roughly how many people live in the county Seward County?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, about 17,500. Actually, over the last census, we were the ninth fastest growing county in the state.
SPEAKER_01:So, other than the city of Seward, how many other cities and villages are there in Seward County?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, 10 municipalities. Um, Seward is the uh the only first class city in in the county, but then there's uh Milford, which is a second class city, uh, and then you have eight other villages, um, and then you have a uh a couple of unincorporated as well. What's the primary industry in Seward? Where ag in manufacturing is really our bread and butter, uh, as well as actually um educational institutions. Six out of our top 12 uh largest employers are educational institutions.
SPEAKER_01:So given the proximity of Seward to Lincoln, I assume there's a lot of folks who want to live in Seward, enjoy the benefits of a small community, but perhaps work in Lincoln. Does that happen a lot?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, 63% of our county leaves the county every day for work through our labor study. And so, yeah, we are a commuter county by nature, but we also commute thousands of people in for jobs as well. And I say actually we did a simple zip code analysis of our top three employers, and they pull from 18 counties for their full-time employment base, and that represents about 1.3 million people. So that's our sales pitch to future employers and even local employers to expand to say, look, we have access to talent because of our proximity to the metro.
SPEAKER_03:And I think, Jonathan, if at least for the city of Seward, but more broadly, one of the unique characteristics is just how many of the businesses are locally owned or are not going to go anywhere, uh, like Concordia University or Memorial Healthcare System. Can you talk about that? Just that local ownership uh element?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. We have multiple uh family-owned or long-time locally managed companies. Um, you know, you mentioned Memorial Healthcare Systems, the CEO, CFO pair have been together for 25 plus years. That's huge. Um, you know, Hughes Brothers is another example, third generation owned. They just started the fourth generation. They've been around for over 100 years. Um, we're unbelievably blessed with the local employers that we have.
SPEAKER_03:And local, as I think about local banks as well. I mean, that's one of our strengths, I think, also is is having that local ownership.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, no doubt. Both uh Cattle and Jones, so they were started by the same guy uh hundred and well, 150 years ago. Oh yeah, yeah, Claudius T. Jones, 150 plus years ago now for Cattle Bank. And then there was no non-compete clause back in the day. And so then 10 years later, he started Jones Bank across the street. And so yeah, they're they're still locally owned today.
SPEAKER_01:I did not know that. That's a great story. So both of you have mentioned Seward County, that it's home to some great educational institutions. I believe uh at least a couple, either colleges or universities. What impact have they had on Seward County as well as Nebraska at large?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so if if you actually look at just to speak briefly, we have both Concordia University and Southeast Community College. Um, we're one of the few um rural counties in the state that have both a liberal arts college as well as a community college. I think that's a huge asset. If you look at the numbers, we have over 2,000 young people, young professionals that are local, and that's huge when you're thinking about talent attraction to help grow local businesses. Um, but that's also a place that creates, I'd say, cultural diversity. It helps bring in things like um arts and athletics and things like that, just create entertainment opportunities, but clearly training institutions that are critical to grow our local employers. I think of somebody like Hughes Brothers, and they say the amount of yeah, 300 employees, how many of them graduated from Milford uh through SEC, a significant amount. I, you know, I've talked to John before and he said we would not be the same company we are without Southeast Community College. So that's critical. Um for Concordia University, they're a brain gain institution. So they bring in more students from the state of Nebraska, um, I think, than pretty much anybody else in the state. And so that makes a huge difference in, again, cultural diversity, but brings in kind of new thoughts, ideas. It keeps things fresh in our rural county.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, out outside of the state of Nebraska. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I and I think one of the things, uh at least certainly uh great things about both is that they've leaned into being uh ag related or in an ag location. So Concordia started uh ag science program several years ago, and you have kids, and it's m obviously Southeast has that too, but you have kids who intentionally choose what I didn't as a teenager in Omaha. I was like, I'm leaving Nebraska. You know, these are kids from Houston and California and New York who are choosing to live in a town of 7,000 people and really discover that they enjoy it and are a great pool of resource for the employers in Seward and other rural counties as well to think about.
SPEAKER_01:So these small liberal arts colleges across the nation, uh, many are not doing well, declining enrollment, financial problems, some are closing. That's not the problem with Concordia and Seward. Why do you think Concordia Seward is doing so well compared to some of these uh small colleges in other states?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I think um so there are right around 1,200 undergrad undergrads, which I think is the highest enrollment they've had since the 70s. Um, you know, I think they have uniquely positioned themselves. They got 50 undergraduate programs, and I think if you put in the graduate about 100 total um program offerings, they have been really intentional about uh and and Kurt already alluded to the Ag Science program. They're trying to sort of meet the market where the needs are. Um and so I think that's made a huge difference. And I think they've understood their identity as an institution. Um, you know, they're they're really good in some of the investments, and Kurth was a key piece of that when he was with uh the university in helping um build some tremendous uh assets from quality of buildings, but also just attracting really quality faculty staff. Um, and so that makes a difference. I mean, I think about uh some of my mentors, and those were those were those professors that I continue to keep in touch with, and that's part of the reason I chose to call Seward County home because I knew they were part of the community leadership. Um so that that makes a difference in in the people and and uh ultimately the quality of life in Seward County.
SPEAKER_01:Kurt mentioned the AG program at uh Concordia. The guy that started that happened to be my advisor and undergrad at the University of Nebraska, Dr. Dennis Brink, who I still hold in the highest regard if he's listening.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:So we've talked about the city of Seward in Seward County. Obviously, you mentioned there's there are other villages, cities, hamlets. One of those is the city of Milford. That's where the campus for Southeast Community College is. Again, uh you mentioned some of the tech trades, things that they teach at SEC. Can you give us some specific examples where employers have said thank you for Southeast Community College in Milford? As a result of that, we've been able to expand our business, do some wonderful things.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I already mentioned uh Hughes Brothers is one example of that. Teneco would be another example, um, you know, where they have their uh they have their manufacturing programs that that help um ultimately scale people up to a level where they're able to hit the ground running. I'll give the quick story of uh in in our recruitment process for Pet Source by Schooler, um, and that ultimately our kind of anchor tenant in our our uh Seward Rail campus, which is our our industrial park in the city of Seward. You know, when we were talking with them, um, you know, that we were competing against there were 50 communities across six states uh that were considering, um, that they were considering for their location. And of course, we're a town of just over 7,000. And so the question was, well, can you find talent here? And the answer was yes. We literally took them to Southeast Community College and we said, here's the 27 programs that they offer, and they have a real technical need in because it's freeze-dried protein for the pet food industry. So they have a ton of refrigeration. Well, you know, Southeast in Milford, literally 10 minutes down the road, has a refrigeration program that's really well regarded in the industry. So that made a difference. They had some confidence that literally in their backyard, um, that they had a place that would be pumping out talent can uh continually and that they ultimately could connect with them on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you I think we finally got to a point in our country where the reality is a four-year traditional college track is not necessarily the thing for everybody. There are kids who are better suited. Their calling in life perhaps is a two-year uh tech school, two-year community college to go do something else. Uh, I have friends whose kids attend uh Southeast Community College in Milford, and someone else is paying the bills. It may be the John Deere dealer down the road because they want those kids to learn diesel technology and come back and work for them for a couple of years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that that's exactly right. And I I mean I just uh with the chamber, we meet with a number of local businesses uh each year. And that's the conversations I have with like the Acres dealer uh that does John Deere and even Nebraska Equipment and they do KSIH and other brands. And they said, yep, we literally sponsor kids every single year to go through the program so we have that talent pipeline that can make sure that we have guys that uh can fix these machines, and these machines are spaceships at this point. Right. So you got to keep up on on really the technology that are in those things, and Southeast Community College is on the cutting edge.
SPEAKER_03:And when I was at uh when I was at Concordia and part of that development of the ag science program, I think a strength for Seward County is both SCC and Concordia are are meeting that need in the ag industry. What we had folks in the industry tell us was the specialization out of the land grants like UNL is great, but we don't need everybody to be a specialist in soil agronomy. We need a broad understanding of of ag and I think SEC and Concordia's programs both do that really well. And then you lay that in with all the different facets of the ag industry that we have between seed corn companies and manufacturers and dealerships in that area. There are just some great opportunities to it's gonna be my joke used to always be it's gonna be easier to recruit a student from Concordia or Milford to go out to, and this is not a slam, but to go out to Imperial and work for Frenchman Valley than it is to get someone to come from East Campus and go do that who's gotten used to living in Lincoln for four years.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So the city of Seward is known as Nebraska's Fourth of July City. How did that come about? How did you seize the reins on that title and and and what does Seward look like on a Fourth of July?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so we say we throw a party for 40,000 of our closest friends, and uh, and so it's organized chaos. Uh we uh plan all year for it though. Um so it started in 1868, the year after Seward was formed. Um, and there's actually some some narrative behind that. Uh, you know, that people came together, women sewed the American flag, and people gave speeches, and it was it was a great time. Well, we've been we've literally been celebrating since 1868 um that celebration in 1979 by an act of Congress. We were named the Fourth of July City Small Town USA. Um, and so we have the papers as our mayor's. There's an act of Congress. There's an act of Congress.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe the last time Congress actually did something.
SPEAKER_00:No comment. Yeah, well, that's uh and we're really proud of that, right? It's part of our identity. And you you see uh various businesses actually take on that moniker, right? Like our our downtown brewery in our historic downtown district, bottle rocket brewery. You know, so we we sort of bleed that all year long, and I think that sort of Americana family-friendly feel, that's exactly our brand.
SPEAKER_03:And I and I think we have to give uh credit, really, it's two words. Clark Coulterman is uh you know, otherwise known as Mr. Seward, is really the one who, as a high school senior, uh, I think with his classmates uh at Seward High, he grew up in Seward and really decided we want to do something big. And so the modern modern iteration of what Seward does really traces back to Clark and his classmates doing that. And it it shows the impact that one person can have, uh, in especially in uh in rural Nebraska, of if you want to do something, most people will say, Great, we'll support you. Let's you know, let's get out of the way and see what happens. And 50 years later, it's become a monster almost of you know, 40,000 people come into town every year.
SPEAKER_01:How many of those are in your front yard, Kurth?
SPEAKER_03:Uh about a thousand, I think. Okay, at least during the parade.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, I know the story is 1969, they were the whiz-bang kids. Uh, I've learned that piece of history, so you have to talk to Clark about the next time you see him.
SPEAKER_01:So, Jonathan, you're you had the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership. What's the mission of the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, our mission is to be the caretaker and steward of fulfilling the Seward County Vision Statement 2035, and we do that through Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Work. Um so back in 2015, uh we formed a vision for the next 20 years for Seward County, and then they asked the question of the eight groups that came together to form that, who's going to be the caretaker and steward of fulfilling that? They didn't have anybody that had the capacity to do it, so they formed our new partnership back in 2016 then. So since then, we've been iteratively focusing on executing on that vision statement on getting to that destination. We've been doing multi-year strategic plans to continue to move the ball down the field.
SPEAKER_03:As we pull out from Seward even a little bit, because you've been wide uh heavily involved across the state. I mean, as you look at rural Nebraska, what are the what are the uh some of the success stories or opportunities you're seeing in other parts of the state as well that you're really aware of or say, geez, I wish we could do that in Seward?
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, there's so much good happening in in Nebraska and it's fun. So I um, you know, today with uh I'm gonna be with a lot of my colleagues through the state chamber as they have their annual meeting here in Lincoln. Um we are unbelievably fortunate in Nebraska uh that we have some dedicated professionals that are really uh working in their career to help strategically grow our state. And a lot of those um professionals are doing it in greater Nebraska. Um, you know, a number of them are really working, or I'd say doubling down on what their local assets are. Um, you know, in various communities, right? We have educational institutions right now. I'm fortunate to be the co-chair of the Six Regions, one Nebraska initiative through the governor's office, state chamber, and DED. So we're focused on the 15 counties in southeast Nebraska. And you actually look at that as a region, we have a tremendous amount of higher education. And so we're trying to play on those strengths as a way to strategically grow our region. And every region has their unique assets, and it's been fun to see everyone then come together in those regions and say, okay, how can we better work together? How can we be stronger together to grow our state as a whole?
SPEAKER_01:What has the expansion of broadband into rural areas in Nebraska meant for Seward County and similar counties?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, broadband's a game changer. Um, and it is uh absolutely critical that uh we have that to future-proof uh our technologies uh with that connectivity. Um it's giving us an opportunity to connect with the world, of course. Um, our goal in Seward County is to be fiber to the cow, and I'm gonna keep saying it until it happens. Uh and so uh the reason we have that though is because I want people that are not in the city to have the same access to uh to amenities per se, you know, through the internet that everybody uh should have in that sense. So we actually have the Bede program coming down, so it's the broadband um program that's coming through the Nebraska broadband office. We have$405 million coming down the pike. We worked super hard to through the challenge process to really identify places that were unserved or underserved. And so we're hoping to bring a number, tens of millions of dollars back to Seward County to build out that fiber to the to the cow is the is the goal.
SPEAKER_03:And why would you say why is that worth the investment from your perspective? I mean, to the cow.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I I think because when you um I I think COVID really drove that home. Um, that connectivity, it's not just to watch Netflix. We do all of life, right? Education, healthcare, people work from home. Um, to me, it it ultimately sets us apart as a state that we would have that ability to connect and it and it helps rural communities, greater Nebraska, be on an even playing field uh, you know, with a metro area in in the place where people can choose to live somewhere else, but still be connected in a way that gives them the opportunity to really get any job in the world.
SPEAKER_01:So one of the challenges we often hear from leaders in other communities is uh a shortage of adequate housing in rural Nebraska and some of these communities. Is that an issue for Seward County? And if so, what have you done to address it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so 2019 was our latest housing study. We're getting ready to update our housing study again. Um it said we needed 488. New housing units, which is not an insignificant amount of housing. We naturally build about 50 homes a year between Seward and Seward County, but it's market rate. Market rate means it's 350,000 or more. And so really, and if you look at the cost of living between Lincoln and Seward, it's it's it's pretty similar. And so what we've been focusing on as an organization is executing uh in partnership with the Rural Workforce Housing Fund. Um that's one of the new state programs that uh really proud of the legislature for making some investments there. We had to raise money locally, got it matched, but we've been able to leverage that. I'm actually in our first round, 1.26 million. We've leveraged that into 15.7 million of new housing investment, 91 new housing units by the time all the projects are done. But those are all non-market rate houses. It's workforce housing, which is really focused on people that are in the workforce. We call it the missing middle.
SPEAKER_03:I know one of the other areas that's that's a challenge, and you've I've heard you talk about this, is child care, especially in a heavily commuter county like we are in in Seward County. Uh, can you talk a little bit? You I know several years ago you I you identified us as a childcare desert. Uh what where does that stand now and what's what's been done with that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, um, so I just want to give credit where credit is due through the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. We've been a part of their Communities for Kids initiative for the last two and a half years now. They're really best practice, uh best in class in the childcare industry. And they have encouraged a lot of greater Nebraska communities and counties to be working tangibly on this uh on this area and really connecting the dots for us. Um part of that is uh we did a simple analysis of kiddos zero to five versus the number of licensed childcare spots. So if you're not familiar, it's the Nebraska Childcare Referral Network. Um it's you can find it online. You can type in any zip code in the state, and it'll pop up the licensed childcare providers. It was one of the good COVID innovations that happened. Um, but 189 child care gap that we had. So actually, within the last two years, we've opened three new centers and a new preschool, and we're now considered a childcare oasis. Um, we're one of the few in the state that can claim that. Um, and so that that's been a huge uh benefit, but now we have rising uh minimum wage. And so now we're focused on sustainability. How do we ensure that all those existing providers that we had, but the new providers can all work together in this new um childcare industry in our in our county and make sure that they can find good talent and ultimately that uh children and families can find quality and affordable care?
SPEAKER_01:It seems like not a month goes by whereby the sewer county isn't announcing yet another new business that's moving there. Can you talk about you mentioned earlier this uh this company called uh Pet Source by Schooler, and it's out by this uh Seward Lincoln Regional Rail campus. Can you tell us more about that campus and how you got PetSource?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, again, uh give credit where credit is due. My my predecessor, uh Lana Zumbrun, uh, is kind of the vision along with local leaders to say we need to create an industrial park. So the first time we've ever had one in 150 years of Seward history. And really, if you don't have something to sell, you can't help companies grow. And so um the city has taken this on where they actually own 140 acres on the east side of the campus and have an option on the 160 acres on the west side. Um, but Pet Source by Schooler was kind of the anchor tenant I already alluded to. It was a multi-state uh, you know, many community site selection process. Um, and we were fortunate to to win that at the end of the day. Um, you know, that that was a um when we think about their target industries where we have assets to be able to attract employers, they were an absolutely perfect fit. And they've really been a great corporate partner for us, um, have dove right in. Um, they're around 150 employees or so now. Uh, and so they became one of our largest employers almost overnight. And actually in 2019, when um they opened officially cut the ribbon in 2020, uh they've since uh expanded then. Uh they thought that was gonna be about five years and they expanded, uh announced that they were gonna expand within a year. Um so we're tremendously proud to have them in Seward County and excited to see their future growth.
SPEAKER_01:So while I don't understand the process, so when you're out trying to recruit a business to come to Seward County, is it uh from a lawyer standpoint, I'm asking myself, do you have to sign nondisclosures? Is it top secret? Is there a cone of silence that people have to go under to discuss these things?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And and because it's the city, right, everything's in a public session. Um I would say through open meetings law, you have um the ability to go into closed session when you're negotiating real estate. And so that's typically where the sausage is made per se. Um but yeah, I mean I'm communicating regularly with the Seward City Council and the mayor and administration to say, here's here's the prospects that we have. We do have a rail campus committee um that considers every proposal that comes in, whether I'm going out and meeting companies or we're getting proposals from the state or our utility partners. Um and we call it, you know, it's the site selection, it's really site elimination. You know, I think there were 50 sites that PetSource by Schooler was looking at. So we had to eliminate 50 sites down to one ultimately.
SPEAKER_03:SCCDP, I mean that transition as you were talking about earlier from really these disparate chambers or organizations to a countywide approach. What's been the benefit in your view of Seward County taking that approach to it? What's been the challenge of getting uh all these municipalities to kind of get over themselves a little bit?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. Well, that that's been a work in progress. And and I don't think that we have the perfect model necessarily. I've actually um next week will be my 19th conversation that I'll have with another community or county that have talked about combining their chamber and economic development group. I've been counting. And so part of that though is it's Seward County story, right? Everybody has their own path. There's no right or wrong way on how you do that to grow your local community or county. Um for us, we realized that we were um we were too small to do things alone. We didn't, we had a lot of silos and we needed to bring a lot a lot of that together. And the vision really united us in that path. And ultimately, our organization is the voice for business in Seward County, and we attend a lot of public meetings as a result of that. But that's where the sausage is made, and that's where ultimately, as the public sector partners with the private sector, we're able to strategically grow Seward County.
SPEAKER_01:So part of the reason why I think that works for Seward County. One, essentially the two cities are Seward and Milford. Granted, you have villages as well. They're not that far apart. There's opportunities to work together. I look at another county, I'll just name the county, Saunders County. You've got Wahoo and Ashland. Ashland's still mad at Wahoo because they said they stole the county seat back in, you know, who was 18, whatever. And they're on different, complete opposite ends of the county geographically, so it's just really hard for them to cooperate on many things. So again, you have like the right set of circumstances to make it happen there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think we're fortunate. Um, you know, I think at the end of the day, everything comes down to leadership. Um, you know, and I uh so the Milford uh mayor, uh Patrick Kelly, has been our chair for this past year. And, you know, he was the one that was in the front row at the pet source by schooler announcement for the Seward Rail campus, and he was the one that stood up first and clapped. You know, that that means something, right? That he knows when Seward wins, Milford wins every time, and vice versa, right? So we tried to create this narrative and this conversation around we win together, and so there isn't as much competition. We're we're ultimately helping each other out.
SPEAKER_03:So let me throw out there, I mean, given this podcast is about Nebraska and agriculture and 93 after the 93 counties, but Nebraska includes, and we often talk about greater Nebraska, there are also some heavily urban counties in the state. As you uh interact with folks from well, and you said earlier Seward's even part of the Lincoln Metro, although I'm not sure everybody in Seward County wants to acknowledge that fact. But as you, if you work with Lincoln or Omaha or Sarpee County folks, what are the challenges and opportunities you see in this sense of, hey, because it what you're saying about Seward is true for us in Nebraska generally. We're not big enough to do it by ourselves. What are the what are the ways you've seen increased collaboration and appreciation between urban and rural? What are some of the challenges still to be overcome in that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I so we are a part of the Lincoln Area Development Partnership. It's a nine county regional marketing group, linkandpartners.org. So I'll promote my uh my fellow uh counties in that sense. Um ultimately when I travel, you know, and people uh I talk about Nebraska in general. Um sometimes people don't know where the state is, and I'm serious. And so the reality of I've had it happen. I I totally get it. Yeah, and so it's kind of like, okay, we need to humble ourselves and realize we aren't the center of the universe. And so we have to associate ourselves with something larger than ourselves if we want to move the needle anywhere. And so part of it is when I'm talking, you know, traveling the country, ultimately we're saying, yeah, we're in the Lincoln, uh, we're in the Lincoln Metro, right? So we're associated with the University of Nebraska. Sometimes they'll have connections there or like, how close are you to Omaha typically? Because like, well, Warren Buffett or or College World Series or whatever, right? So you just try to associate your yourself with something larger than yourself. I I find tremendous uh collaboration with both Lincoln and Omaha and that, you know, as those communities win, as they move the needle on a national scale, that only helps us, right? And I think vice versa, as we're growing the Seward Lincoln Regional Rail Campus, the reality is it's the Seward Lincoln Regional Rail Campus. We acknowledge that as Lincoln continues to thrive, it only helps Seward and vice versa. And just uh I think the reality of today is people are transient. So they're gonna live where they wanna live, raise their family, but they're gonna travel where they're gonna get a quality enough job to support their lifestyle.
SPEAKER_01:So looking out over the horizon, what does Seward County look like in say year 2030, which is just five years down the road?
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm. Yeah, I I think uh Seward County, we use uh strategic growth as the term that we've used in used in past strategic plans. We don't want to grow for the sake of growing. Um, if you looked over the last 90 years, actually from 1930 to 2020, Seward grew at 1.02%. Uh it's slow and steady, wins the race. Well, the reality is we need to be able to keep up with the infrastructure demands that we have. And so we don't necessarily we're not looking for explosive growth. We're looking for strategic additions within our local economy. And so part of that is continuing to build out the Seward Lincoln Regional Rail Campus. Um, and and then also just as a county, part of that is we have to continue to build housing, child care, expand broadband, the things that we're already executing on. We just need to be faithful and do the things that are in front of us to continue to be a great county.
SPEAKER_01:So there's a lot of folks who listen to this podcast who are leaders in their respective Nebraska communities, and they're probably looking very envious at all the great things that Seward County has done. I assume somewhere on your bookshelf you have a secret playbook, right? So if we pulled that secret playbook off, what what would the first three things jump out as far as how what other counties could do watching what you've done, what's in your playbook that they could replicate in their communities?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So this goes to the conversation of people asking, you know, should we combine our chamber and economic development group? Again, I don't, I'm not advocating you should or shouldn't do that, but to me, uh creating the vision over a 20-year basis, it's given us something to shoot for. Uh, and that's really helped keep us laser focused. I mean, literally every single Monday morning, unless it's a holiday, then it's a Tuesday, our staff meets. And we have that multi-year strategic plan that keeps us very, very focused on moving that ball down the field. Every quarter, we're we're communicating with our board to be accountable to that, to say, here is how we're executing on this. If we're going wrong, we need to, we need to pivot. And so I think that vision is really, really critical. Um, I also think investing in your people is is so critical. I think so, industry average for chamber of economic development work is three years nationwide. I've been fortunate to be in the industry for 13 years. Why did that happen? It's because people invested in me. People like former state senator Mark Coltman, who said, I see you as a young person. I'm I'm glad that you're here. I want to invest in you. I want you to be a professional in our county. That meant the world to me, right? And so now I've been trying to pass that on to the next generation. Um, you know, so I would say investing in your people. And then I think lastly, is just having that growth mindset. Uh, because ultimately, if you're not growing, you're dying. And personally, professionally, all things. And so for us, that has just um that is synthesized within all community leaders, all countywide leaders to say we're not growing for the sake of growing, but how do we figure out how to get to yes instead of always immediately going to no?
SPEAKER_01:So if our listeners want to learn more about the Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership, where should they go?
SPEAKER_00:Yep, cultivate sewardcounty.com is our website. Uh, and then we're also active on Facebook and Instagram, so they're welcome to follow us in those places. We also have a podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, you do tell us about that.
SPEAKER_00:Talk Seward County. Um, so part of the strategic plan was we have 63% of our county that leaves the county every day for work. How do you engage that population? Well, a lot of them have a lot of drive time, and so we thought, you know, a podcast is a reasonable way to tell the stories of Seward County. And so uh we're excited to have that uh out there in the world. We'd welcome people to listen to some of those episodes.
SPEAKER_01:Great idea. So, Jonathan, uh, as you may know, and our listeners certainly know, uh, one question that we ask every guest, you get one word. What is one word that best describes to you this great place in which we live, in which we work, in which you're helping to build Seward County? What is your one word that describes Nebraska?
SPEAKER_00:Um, I thought about this a little bit. Uh I would say home. Uh home because I've I've had the privilege of traveling the world throughout my uh throughout not just my career, but you know, even in college through through music uh groups. And I think of flying back home every single time. I just like I get chills thinking about that. And and for me, this is home. This is where I'm raising my family. These are the people I know and love and I trust. Uh, and I'm I'm going nowhere anytime soon.
SPEAKER_01:Jonathan, Nebraska is better with thriving communities like Seward and Seward County. Thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to visit with us today. If you enjoyed this episode, consider giving it a five-star rating and make sure you share it with your family and friends and anyone who is interested in building a thriving community here in Nebraska or perhaps beyond. Please keep listening as we release additional episodes on Nebraska. It's great communities, Nebraska's number one industry, agriculture, and the folks who make it happen.
SPEAKER_02:Thanks. This has been Nighty Three, the podcast, sponsored by Nebraska's law firm, Remboldt Ludkey.
