DED sees state funds at work in tour of Aurora

Last month I had the opportunity to give the recruitment team from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED) a tour of Aurora.  Their stop in Aurora was part of a larger tour visiting communities in the central part of Nebraska. 
One of the hardest parts about hosting DED, or any group, is maximizing what can be shown in the amount of time they can spend. For this day I was allotted an hour and 30 minutes and I knew I needed to show them areas available for development, since that is what they need to know about a community as they recruit businesses to Nebraska.  
To start, we met at The Office on the square, where International Workforce Services is located, to show a great example of workforce development happening locally. Since it is an unwritten rule that refreshments need to be part of the tour, our first destination was walking to Snackology.  
Unfortunately, the only hiccup of the day happened on our walk. I intentionally picked the meeting point and our refreshment stop, so we could look at the new mural on the southwest side of the square, but the walk didn’t go as planned. When we turned the corner, a large UPS truck was parked blocking our entire view of the mural. After we had a laugh and walked around the truck to see the mural, we continued our tour as planned.   
Next, we boarded the East Park Villa van for a quick tour around the community. I enjoy using this van for tours because it gives me the opportunity between stops to point out amenities in our community. Our first stop was on the west end of Aurora to look at the site where Kiner Manufacturing is expanding and the ground available for development further back in the subdivision. Part of the infrastructure costs for this project were covered by Site and Building Development Funds through DED, which they were able to see at work.    
Our second stop was in Streeter subdivision to see the new housing developments that have transpired with the help of two revolving loan funds created with Rural Workforce Housing Funds and generous matches from our local foundations and businesses. So far, this area has seen the creation of a new 56-lot subdivision and 50 new housing units in a variety of price points that have already been built or are under construction.  
The third stop was at the Mission Critical site south of Aurora to show the current development that is happening there. Key takeaways for the group were the amount of infrastructure that is being developed and the number of shovel-ready sites that will be ready for development this fall. The DED team was also impressed by the type of data center that is being developed in Aurora as it is much nicer than some of the other data centers developing across the state.  
While I would have liked the tour to be twice as long, it was great to show a snapshot of our community. We were able to see some of the new developments and talk about how previous tours and programs administered by DED have spurred much of the growth our community is experiencing. 
Based on their feedback from their quick visit to Aurora, they were impressed, and we have a lot to be proud of in our community.  

 KELSEY BERGEN serves as executive director of the Aurora Development Corporation. She can be reached at kelsey@growaurora.com