"The Best Place Project" – Getting job done for economy: Mayor, business leaders are taking right steps to help Missoula grow

For far too long, the city’s various development groups, private businesses and government agencies have operated in a piecemeal fashion. While that may have been fine when the economy was booming and Missoula was simply coasting along with it, now that the financial tides have turned it is simply not enough to ride the waves of fortune.

Missoula Mayor John Engen may have jumped the gun when he announced a new economic effort called the Best Place project http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/index.aspx?NID=692 last month – when he wasn’t yet ready to talk about what the project was going to accomplish or how its goals would be met.

But Engen more than made up for that a few weeks later when he provided a detailed outline of the project’s mission and methods, and made it clear that he is prepared to continue cracking the whip in order to get results right away.

It was great to hear the mayor take responsibility for economic development in Missoula and reassuring that he recognizes the need to take swift, decisive action. But most importantly, it was encouraging to learn that, at last, someone has stepped forward into a position of leadership over Missoula’s economy.

Full Opinion: http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_e411568a-2893-11df-8a56-001cc4c03286.html

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"The Best Place Project" – Missoula, Montana Mayor John Engen puts community economic development in spotlight http://www.matr.net/article-37865.html