Other Cities Can Learn From Beloit

(From the Janesville Messenger, 3-4-07)

I have a confession to make.

In the seven-plus years that I was a member of the Forward Janesville staff, I never attended the Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce annual dinner.

Your first response to this revelation might very well be, “So what?” In retrospect, so everything. As the world of business and economic development adapts, it becomes more and more important that Janesville and its next-door neighbor work together for the benefit of Rock County as a whole.

In some ways, that is already the case. The Rock County Development Alliance, a cooperative effort of economic development professionals, primarily from Janesville and Beloit, jointly markets the area to businesses searching for space. Forward Janesville and the Greater Beloit Chamber of Commerce jointly took on fundraising efforts to build an engineering laboratory at UW-Rock County. That project, incidentally, was a tremendous success, with the new facility scheduled to open in the fall of this year.

The dinner was held in the center court of the Beloit Mall. Some may have thought that venue to be an odd choice, but upon arriving you were immediately convinced otherwise.

The last time I had been inside the Beloit Mall, it was an empty shell, almost like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie with its abandoned stores. Last Tuesday, it was a vibrant, classy, rejuvenated space where 600 people gathered to celebrate a community that has taken bold strides to reinvent itself.

Beloit’s pride was showing. The event went off without a hitch. Besides a keynote speech from John Ratzenberger, best known as Cliff from the classic television comedy “Cheers,” the Chamber presented awards to outstanding volunteers and businesses.

One of those honored was former board chair Dale Hjerpe of Alcoa Wheel Systems, who along with ABC Supply Company’s Carla Swain deserves a lot of the credit for taking a risk and committing to the UW-Rock County fundraising effort. That big step, acknowledged during in his acceptance speech, has likely set the stage for more cooperative efforts with Janesville.

To the surprise of almost no one in the room, the Large Business of the Year Award went to ABC Supply Company. Accepting the award was its CEO, Ken Hendricks, who added one more trophy to what must be a roomful of such accolades. Despite that, and the fact that Inc. Magazine recently honored him with a cover story as its Entrepreneur of the Year, Ken appeared sincerely moved by this particular award. And the crowd responded with adoration for a man responsible for much of Beloit’s rebirth.

It was exhilarating to see a community that has taken major steps forward and appears well on its way to new successes. People not only from Janesville but from other communities would do well to study Beloit’s example and to see a business community that is genuinely excited about its progress.