Come rediscover Goderich, urges new business promoter

HEATHER BOA Bullet News GODERICH – It’s time to rediscover Goderich.

That’s the message the town’s new executive director of community economic development is delivering to anyone who will listen, whether they’re customers, visitors, investors, developers or site selectors.

He reports to the Community Economic Development Committee, a volunteer committee of the Huron Chamber of Commerce – Goderich, Central and North Huron.

“It’s a very diverse committee. It’s business and it’s citizens and they have a very singular focus and that is to help businesses to reinvest. To help build their courage, their confidence to reinvest to reopen their shops. To look at gaps we may have in products and services in the community to attract businesses,” he said.

Funding for the two-year contract position and the committee’s work comes from the Town, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Ontario Trillium Foundation, the EdgeFund, BIA, Tourism Goderich, Huron County, Huron Economic Development Partnership, Huron Small Business Enterprise Centre and the Chamber to assess the economic and employment impacts of the tornado.

Letts will work alongside other organizations involved to deliver a unified message externally, and to help local business reinvest in Goderich.

“It’s an initiative to let the world know that we are open for business. To let the world know that we continue in Goderich to delight customers following the F3 tornado that came through. It’s an open invitation to them to rediscover Goderich,” Letts said.

For the past two decades, Letts has focused his career on community economic development, developing business strategy and communications for corporations and manufacturing companies and guiding community-based organizations through organizational development. He is currently self-employed, although in the past he has served in such roles as a banker, municipal economic developer and heritage main street co-ordinator. He was chief executive officer for Greater Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.

Letts is looking forward to creating action from the ideas that have been developed by the volunteer committee in the four months before he was hired.

“One of the main challenges I have, and it’s a good challenge to have, is I want to balance the ratio of ideas to action. Tourism season has already started and really gets going on the May 24 weekend and it’s time to really put a lot of good ideas and good intention and goodwill into action,” he said.

At this point, he is working with the committee on three strategies: business success initiative, market development initiative and a workforce development initiative.

“The challenge here is to recapture the beauty and to rebuild in a way that’s sympathetic to the heritage but is also a leap forward for what customers are expecting now,” he said.

CERC also helped to set up the Vision Centre on North Street, to support affected workers and their families by providing resources, employment preparation support, information, and connections to community services and agencies. It gives an opportunity to gather statistics on the number of people who were displaced from homes and apartments or who lost their jobs as a result of the tornado.