LAKEPORT — The Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee (LEDAC) was presented with an updated report regarding the Carnegie Library feasibility study at its meeting Wednesday.
Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira and LEDAC Chair Wilda Shock presented the update.
Garavaglia Architeture, Inc., of San Francisco, was chosen as the consulting firm that will perform the feasibility study, Shock said. The company is familiar with working on historic structures, as well as analyzing and assessing historic buildings.
“He (the consultant) will be giving us a timeline,” Shock said. “He will want to meet with this group ? and then there will be a larger community workshop to generate other ideas.”
The final report will be given to the Lakeport City Council after the study has been completed, Shock said.
In other business, the committee discussed the implementation of its goals.
The Lakeport Main Street Association took on the committee goal to keep commercial land and vacant building inventories updated, Shock said.
Other goals include a marketing project, improving the presence of economic development on the city website, developing a city brand, increasing involvement in social media and implementing a business recruitment plan.
“It is very predictable what people will buy at different times in their lives, depending on how old they are and what kind of families they have,” Committee Member Christine Hutt said.
Hutt would like to analyze demographic patterns of the city and “see what businesses are posed to thrive.” She thinks this approach would be valuable to know which businesses have a chance.
“I”ve watched too many little businesses start here that didn”t have a chance at all, because they didn”t understand the demographics ? ,” Hutt continued.
“If data is talked to long enough, it will confess,” Committee Member Bill Eaton said.
The committee agreed with the Hutt”s approach.
The committee also discussed regional economic development.
Lake County Economic Development Manager Jack Long said there will be difficulty transitioning from planning to implementation, because businesses are concerned with the populations of Lakeport and Clearlake.
“Papa Murphy”s pizza is a perfect example, they contacted me ? and they said that it has got to be in Clearlake,” Long said.
Long explained to the representative from the pizza chain that the demographics and amount of spendable income differ greatly, despite the majority of the population living in Clearlake.
“They don”t just look at the population, but at education too,” Silveira said. “Education and wealth tie together, but if you have the younger generation ? who are higher in wealth, they are the demographic that is going to go shop.”
J. W. Burch, IV is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. Reach him at 263-5636 ext. 39 or at jburch@record-bee.com.
