QUARTERLY REPORT: March 22, 2019
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We hit the ground running in 2019, and we haven’t stopped! We kicked off the year taking the many business resources available in San Juan County on the road. Three
San Juan County Business Resource Roadshows
were hosted in Bluff, Montezuma Creek, and Monument Valley. We were joined on the Roadshow by county, region, and state resources. Outreach in and hearing from our many communities is key to our office so we hope to hit the road again later this year. We also continued education efforts on the Community Reinvestment Agency (CRA) tax incremental financing tool with all the county wide taxing entities.
January also marked the opening of the Utah Legislative Session. Attending Tourism Day and Rural Day on the Hill we met with representatives on the key focus areas of San Juan County. A key piece to legislation were the efforts of the Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) in requesting appropriations for Phase 2 of the Fiber project in San Juan County, which will extend Fiber from Bluff to Navajo Mountain. This project will bring Fiber lines to the schools throughout the county offering potential infrastructure for private telecom companies to branch Fiber infrastructure to residential and commercial properties. With appropriations secured we are working with the partnership of UETN and Emery Telcom to secure right of ways for the Fiber lines throughout the county. To complement our Fiber infrastructure efforts, February also brought the Rural Online Initiative (ROI) Town Halls in Monticello and Blanding. In collaboration with the ROI program and Blanding City Economic Development community members met together and explored training and opportunities for working remotely.
We ended February and entered March attending Go West Travel Trade, Denver Travel & Adventure, as well as the International Sportsman's Expo in SLC. We also welcomed the start to the season of FAM tours throughout the county. This year our goal with FAM's is promoting off-season and shoulder season, as well as experiential travel. Huge thanks to all our county businesses and partners who help make these tours a success.
The first quarter came to a close with hosting a visit from Congressman Curtis’ office. The Congressman visited Spanish Valley, Monticello, Blanding, Bluff, and Mexican Water communities. In the day he had in the county many topics were covered including infrastructure development, Economic Development, public lands, healthcare, school district, city needs, and business development.
We have many partnerships that have developed, and outreach that has been made to our office to assist with countywide Economic Development efforts. The upward and positive direction that the county is headed in, in many parts is thanks to your efforts, participation, and support.
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Picture above features Congressman John Curtis touring county businesses. Pictured at Young's Machine, a local manufacturer of underground mining equipment in Monticello.
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COORDINATOR'S CORNER: ROI
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San Juan County in partnership with Blanding City Economic Development recently hosted two sessions of town hall meetings to inform, educate and provide opportunities for attendees to take advantage of a new and exciting program. The program, called the Rural Online Initiative, consists of various facets but begins with a training course that's free in San Juan County and is $99 outside of rural Utah.
The certification, achieved by successfully completing the online course is called the
Master Remote Work Professional
and prepares people to confidently work from home employing their skill sets through four weeks of coursework that utilizes the latest programs and technology throughout. A communication program at the heart of the program is called Slack, an effective, efficient program that's been compared to instant messaging software on steroids due to it's intuitive design, ease of organizing threads of communication and encryption security. Another program utilized for video conferencing is called Zoom. The program provides limited licenses to both software packages for use during the training. These industry standard programs are paired with Utah State University's online education platform called Canvas, make for an overall excellent experience as rated by people who have successfully completed the certification.
There were 43 total attendees between the two town hall sessions and of those, 33 signed up for the certification course. After completing the course, these folks will be able to apply for scholarships to continue learning about online technologies, like graphic design and coding or apply for a scholarship to receive a year of subscription to an online job site that specializes in work from home opportunities, one example is
FlexJobs
. Click on the links below to learn more or to sign up.
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Three different types of workers benefit from the ROI experience:
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Freelancer
- Learn a marketable skill
- Use your skills to serve clients online
- Make your own schedule
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Remote Employee
- Set working hours
- Consistent income
- Work wherever you have an internet connection
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Entrepreneur
- Start an online business
- Be your own boss
- Sell products you can make
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Pictures above feature participants at the ROI Town Halls in Monticello and Blanding.
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SJC BUSINESS RESOURCE ROADSHOW
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Our office took our resources and partners on the road by presenting three business resource roadshows and hosted more than a dozen people at three locations. The idea behind the roadshow concept is to take resources that are housed all over the state as well as our locally available resources and go directly into communities that may find them challenging to access.
Our efforts were well received by small audiences that we'd like to grow in future events through better education and marketing. While it was a good learning experience for us, the events brought resources from around the state including, SEUALG's (Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments) RLF (Revolving Loan Fund) manager, Housing Rehab Program manager and director. In addition GOED (Governor's Office of Economic Development) Office of Rural Development and Utah's Business Resource Center coordinator was available to assist people that attended. Local resources included Travel and Tourism, The Business Resource Center and Economic Development.
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Entrepreneurs, Mentors, & Business Owners: Contribute your skills inventory to the San Juan County Entrepreneur Database!
- Mentor young entrepreneurs
- Find other entrepreneurs with complementary skills
- Identify possible business partners and collaborators
- Find potential suppliers and customers
- Help identify regional training and profession forums
Join the database here:
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First quarter 2019 has been busy with familiarization (FAM) tours and travel trade shows. The concept of these style tours is to promote the area to travel agents, media personnel, as well as adventure and travel coordinators from around the globe. These types of tours allow us to maximize our exposure and offer first-hand experience to influencers in our target markets.
Here's a list of the FAM tours we hosted and Travel Trade and Consumer shows we have attended this first quarter.
FAM Tours Jan-March 2019
Chinese Influencer FAM
- 2 Participants- Monument Valley- January 30-31
Japanese Media FAM
- 2 participants- Monument Valley- February 3
French Trade FAM
- 1 participant- Monument Valley- February 22
Belgian Trade FAM
- 8 participants- Monticello, Blanding, Mexican- March 18-19
Australian/New Zealand Media FAM
- 4 participants- Bluff, Monument Valley March 22-23
(Upcoming) UK Trade FAM
- 1 participant- Monument Valley- March 30
Consumer Travel & Sportsmen’s Shows Jan-March 2019
Murdock Travel Show
- Sandy, UT- January 25-26 (6,000-8,000 attendees)
Denver Travel & Adventure Show
- Denver, CO- February 23-24 (15,000 attendees)
International Sportsmen’s Expo
- Sandy, UT- March 14-17 (8,000 attendees)
(Upcoming) Dallas Travel & Adventure Show
- Dallas, TX- March 30-31 (13,000 attendees)
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Left: Lynne Shumway and Allison Yamamoto-Sparks attending the International Sportsmen's Expo. Right:The Belgian FAM tour, joined by Natalie Randall, enjoys dinner at Cottonwood Steakhouse in Bluff after touring sites in Monticello, Blanding and Mexican Hat.
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To better serve our partners in the tourism trade industry we will be releasing a monthly email in a news skim format. The goal with this is to provide a briefing to our industry partners of any news, updates, and local stories in San Juan County -- Utah's Canyon Country.
Content we would like to include:
- Company/Organization Press Releases
- Cutting-Edge Vendor Recommendations
- Job Openings/Career Advancement Opportunities
- Accolades/Awards
- Property changes (including name changes)
- New Hires/Retirements
- Upcoming Events
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We've been featured on various platforms, and are continually working to expand our public relations. To keep a pulse on articles, posts, and other coverage about San Juan Country Economic Development, Utah's Canyon Country, or our office in general check out the
newsroom reel
on our website.
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Monthly Economic Briefing
March 2019
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*Department of Workforce Services Job Count Estimates based on Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
*Local Area Unemployment Statistics- Seasonally Adjusted, Help Wanted Online
*Data in Parentheses Reflect January 2018 Numbers
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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Please take note of deadlines for some of these funding sources.
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Enterprise Zone
Are you seeking to expand or relocate your business in rural Utah? The Enterprise Zone helps with 1) Incremental tax credits for new jobs paying above county average wage 2) Capital investment tax credits.
The
San Juan County
Enterprise Zone district can be found at
locate.utah.gov
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The Targeted Business Tax Credit (TBTC)
is an Office of Rural Development (ORD) incentive that has been underutilized in the past for several different reasons, but we are ready to promote it! For more detailed information, see GOED’s website:
https://business.utah.gov/rural/
and scroll down to the Targeted Business Tax Credit.
Application period deadline for TBTC applications has been extended to March 31, 2019. This extended deadline process will accept applications for a total of $40,000 in refundable tax credits.
Noteworthy on TBTC:
- This is a "time sensitive" program and applications will be accepted until March 31, 2019
- TBTC is a competitive process and submitted projects will be reviewed, ranked and rated according to statute, rules and policy.
- TBTC projects must meet a high standard in terms of capital investment and number of jobs created
- TBTC is only available to businesses located in counties of less than 25,000 population
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Business Resource One-Sheeter
Here's a handy
UPDATED
sheet that describes the most popular funding options
available in San Juan County
. You'll also find links to funding resources below.
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2019 UT LEGISLATIVE SESSION
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This legislative session was packed with discussion about Rural Development, Economic Development, Outdoor Recreation, and Tax Reform. Here is a
brief
highlight and overview of some of the bills that we followed and believe pertained most to San Juan County Economic Development efforts and businesses. As well as some that were of interest to our region.
Economic Development/Rural Development
HB 84
Rural Fast Track & BEAR Grant Adjustment
: This bill changes the number of months examined in determining the creation of a company’s new job under the Rural Fast Track Program from 24 months to 12 months. Additionally, it removes the cap on the amount of money that can be granted to a single economic development entity with BEAR.
HB 110
Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Adjustment
: Increases the grant amount that GOED may award to a business entity in a fiscal year (FY) as part of the
REDI program
to a qualifying business entity from $25,000 to $250,000 in rural employment expansion grants in any FY.
HB 276
Rural Rapid Manufacturing Grant
: Creation of the Rural Rapid Manufacturing Grant Program in GOED. Rapid manufacturing is defined as facility, laboratory, equipment, or process engaged in small-batch, fast-delivery manufacturing.The purpose is to provide funding for the building and improvement of equipment to provide opportunities for students and employees to train and participate in rapid manufacturing; and provide training and scholarships for students and employees to participate in rapid manufacturing employment opportunities. Appropriation for the program is $500,000.
HB 296
Rural Online Working Hubs
:
This bill is an attempt by to create rural online working hubs in communities outside the Wasatch Front. The bill takes $2 million and makes it available to rural counties to build/update buildings, provide infrastructure like high speed internet, and purchase furniture etc. so locals can find jobs in the online workforce and hopefully stay closer to the communities they are from rather than relocate to Salt Lake or Las Vegas. This is part of the 3-legged stool which includes other bills from last year, aimed at rural communities and supported by GOED.
HCR 2
A concurrent resolution supporting the development of wind, solar, hydrogen, small conduit hydroelectric, and geothermal energy in rural areas of the state as a compliment to Utah’s diversified energy system and supports the export of those Utah-produced renewable energy sources to other states.
SB 200
Rural Economic Development Modifications
(on hold) changes rural incentives putting county Economic Development Directors in the position of creating and administering a program customized to their specific county.
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Tourism & Outdoor Recreation
HB 345
Tourism Marketing Performance Account:
Technical amendment to HB345 to clarify that the director of the Utah Office of Tourism shall use account money appropriated to GOED to pay for the statewide advertising, marketing, and branding campaign for promotion of the state as conducted by GOED.
HB 380
Utah Avalanche Awareness Week
this bill establishes the first week of December as Avalanche Awareness week to educate the public about avalanche awareness and safety; encourage collaborative efforts to decrease annual avalanche accidents and fatalities; and honor Utah residents who have lost their lives in avalanches, including those who lost their lives working to prevent avalanches.
HCR 4
A concurrent resolution supporting Utah’s Every Kid Outdoors Initiative
SB222
Children’s Outdoor Recreation Program
creates funding for youth outdoor recreation programs.
Taxation
HB441
Tax Equalization and Reduction Act
(on hold) this bill is intended to modernize Utah's tax system. It would impose sales tax on many services and reduce the sales tax rate and income tax rate. The purpose is to stabilize the general fund by broadening the tax base to reflect the increased service economy.
SB 168
Sales and Use Tax Revisions
Enables collecting sales taxes currently not being remitted on (Amazon) Market Place purchases. The fiscal note states SB168 may increase state sales tax revenue by $3.3M in FY2020 and $65M in FY2021. Local governments should see an increase of $1.4M in FY2020 and $2.8M in FY2021.
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March
April
May
June
13
Grow with Google Training - Blanding
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ATTENTION BUSINESS OWNERS!
We strive to maintain accurate information about businesses operating in San Juan County on our website. If you have a listing, please review it for accuracy and if you do not have a listing and would like one, please click on the e-mail link below and send us a photo and all the information you'd like included in your listing.
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Cheers,
San Juan County EDVS
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